Forging the Swords
What is the power of theatre? What is focused on is different depending on a work, but there is something that will never change; How much theatre stimulates the imaginations of the audience and how excited the audience becomes. These are the most important things. This piece of work is full of the power of theatre in the development of the ridiculous and fantastic story.
Originally Written by Lu Xun
Composed and Directed by NAKASHIMA Makoto
Performed by SAITO Yoriaki, NAKAGAWA Rena, AKABANE Saburo, MURAKAMI Satomi, TAKAHASHI Hitoshi,
NAKAGAKI Naohisa, YASUDA Maya, GOTO Shiori, OOKAWA Junko, MASUTANI Kyoko
“Forging the Swords” was originally written by Lu Xun based on several ancient Chinese stories. It is a Chinese style fantasy which includes the criticism on the old regime and strong determination against the reform. This story will be directed as the outer frame to reflect the way that the story has been told throughout the people’s lives and plumped up through their own imaginations. In this context, the bizarre story will be performed in a dynamic way.
Story
The sixteen year boy Mei Chien Chih’s father was killed by the brutal king. The mysterious dark man and blue swords of the boy’s father lead the boy to fight with the king to avenge his father. However, strangely enough, the fight takes place in a huge cauldron. And stranger, the fight is between the two heads. Mei Chien Chih fights as hard as he can. Then, the dark man cuts his own head and joins the boy to support. Finally, he has avenged his father’s death but…
1881- 1936. A Chinese literary man and philosopher. He studied in Japan. After returning to China, he joined a revolutionary movement. In a while, he devoted himself to studies. In 1918, he published “A Madman’s Diary” in his name “Lu Xun”. Since then, he had published numbers of novels and books of his miscellaneous thoughts such as “The True Story of Ah Q”. In 1930, he joined the League of Left-Wing Writers. He made a great achievement in terms of the translation, studies of literary history and the like. “Forging the Sword” is one of the stories from a collection of stories called “Old Tales Retold”.
Programmes marked with EN are available with English subtitles which automatically appear on the iPod screen.
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BIRD Theatre [Theatre]
Grant: Subsidies for the Promotion of Cultural and Art Activities (as part of the Promotion Project for the Reinforcement
of Theatres and Music Halls) by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs
Japan Arts Council
[ The Period of The Festival ] Thursday, 6 - Sunday, 23 September, 2018
[ Programme Director ] NAKASHIMA Makoto (Director /Artistic Director of the BIRD Theatre Company TOTTORI)
