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setting which tho :torhimm hat; gram 1!. So Gratioriiitl meets; llltlitfflthlt§lll to explore the effotttz; of ti capitalist .ipproatfh to infuslr‘, .rr‘. tho l‘t‘flllit‘ and the sot‘ieh Workmtz for if, Pl't?\10llt2 [lltftlllfilifllltl iv, tho \iflllll‘tilh limo set .“t/‘dfifh‘W‘ m lélt‘wi‘n; gangland lorirloh .' hi1 OWN/c oh .i Falklands ‘.‘.’dlt§ll|l‘. so Limisugi trodtmorits are hot Llliltllllilull to thorn. "Arid peopie ia'oix sou [Monti-hr: done in modem dross] Shopr‘tx‘k aridstith Shakopearo how it}: 111m t‘OlHlliOllpldm‘. hut not With Dittkoris.’ So if tour t‘XlR‘llt‘llt‘t? of Dickens. likt‘ Shakespeare. got "to further than the sohoolroom. lot Lox'etRMadrioss le‘lLiilll the classics To! \ou. You can feast on those iixo cockroaches another time. Gareth Dauesl
HAMLET King's Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 26—Sat 30 Oct
For many, the mention of Shakespeare brings to the mind images of mighty and noble questions, phrased with elegance and uttered in the cadences of a particular class, for members of the same class. This lamentable misconstruction of the facts is partially the fault of a couple of hundred years of willful misreading by theatre practitioners keen to render the theatre ‘respectable‘ by engaging with the upper-classes, and partially of an educational system which can drain the drama from drama. Shakespeare himself was a buccaneering theatrical and commercial practitioner, whose success owed much to the less ‘respectable’ audiences who came to South Bank venues for a cheap night of sensational theatre and maybe a visit to their nearby brothels as part of the deal. This didn‘t preclude the asking of big metaphysical questions. Indeed, we might reflect that we have more time to reflect on these matters in leisure, however we go about it, than in our hours of work.
Yukio Ninagawa seems to understand this better than most contemporary directors. The Japanese director’s visits to past Edinburgh International Festivals have been
HA'BiTZiTs
Theatre
marked out with sensation and wild theatricality. His first foray into the UK theatre world was indeed at the International Festival, with a memorable Macbeth in 1985. Since then, such subsequent pieces as Tango in Winter in 1991, also in Edinburgh, and the notable RSC King Lear (1999) with Nigel Hawthorne in the lead have established Ninagawa‘s distinctive voice with British audiences.
This voice is often interpreted by critics as being influenced by Noh, a Japanese theatrical form associated with ritual, and for that matter, the Japanese aristocracy. A fair enough assumption, given that Ninagawa has actually directed Noh for British audiences. Yet the bold theatrical sweeps and sensations of his Shakespeares are surely more influenced by another Japanese theatrical form, which these days has, like Shakespeare, been ossified into a pursuit of posh folks. But Kabuki is an altogether different form. Go back a few hundred years and you‘ll find that this genre, invented by a hooker to help with business, and featuring gangsters, fallen nobles, murders and love suicides, is much closer to the earthy world of Shakespeare than the spiritual enlightenment of Noh. And it still has the big questions. This production leads with noted television and film actor Michael Maloney as the Dane with the brain, and promises to be as full as ever of sensation and theatrics. Go see. And let your hair down. (Steve Cramer)
Tron Theatre. Glasgow. Tues 2-Sat 6 Nov
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