Emerging from the Yamato ‘Passion’ Japanese Taiko drum performance, my cheeks actually hurt from smiling. So touching was the troupe's camaraderie, the exuberant energy, and polished professional delivery that I was grinning ear-to-ear for much of the show. It was moving in more ways than one – the intense vibrations from the massive drums could be felt - like thunder! As a … [Read more...]

Coming to Stratford Circus Arts Centre in east London, from November 24th – 28th, Kuli-Kala is a brand new action-packed stage show. Featuring Samurai and Ninjas struggling to join forces to defeat the Shogun, there are swashbuckling sword fights, dynamic choreography, music, song and an intriguing narrative to bring this dramatic story to life.The colourful, stylised aesthetic … [Read more...]

Playwright: Francis Turnly / Director: Jude Christian / Starring: Haruka Abe, Elizabeth Tan, Kunjue Li A gritty, gripping coming-of-age drama, 'Harajuku Girls' premiered at the Finborough Theatre in February 2015 and is on until Saturday March 21st, 2015.  Thank you for inviting JapaneseLondon.com in to review! Graduating from high school is a familiar rite of passage. … [Read more...]

In London until 11 January 2015 - back and ‘re-booted’ for the 3rd year running – SIRO-A clearly have a winning formula.  A fusion of mime, dance and puppetry, with lasers and music, from Japan?  Well, I expected the precision-timed action.  I also anticipated mesmerisation by technology.  I certainly wasn’t disappointed on either count!  What I didn’t expect was the clever, … [Read more...]

Love both Japan and England? Torn between two countries on opposite sides of world? William Adams, the English Samurai, would empathise entirely. His dilemma will be close to the hearts of many in the audience. He feels he has ‘one foot on the land and the other in the sea’. The British pilot of a Dutch vessel shipwrecked off the coast of Japan in 1600, Adams forms a friendship … [Read more...]

2013 is the 400th Anniversary of Japan-Britain Relations.  It’s a little known, but rather key, fact that the Shogun actually first granted the English permission to reside and trade in Japan on 2nd October, 1613. Summer 1613 was when the Clove, a ship of the East India Company, passed Nagasaki and then reached the island of Hirado. Its commander, John Saris, brought official … [Read more...]

Complicite's 2010’s production at the Barbican is ostensibly a story about Shun-kin, a cruel and spoilt 19th-century merchant's daughter, and Sasuke, her ridiculously devoted servant and lover. Shun-kin the play, however, presents a whole much greater than its parts.  Jun'ichiro Tanizaki’s writings - though internationally famous and well-loved – are here nothing more than a … [Read more...]

Theatre Témoin's powerful, ambitious JUKAI whisks you away on an action-packed journey with a host of spirited characters.  Set in Japan, near the ‘sea of trees’ at the base of Mount Fuji, interwoven stories lead the audience deep into an ominous stretch of forest, as well as deep into the lives of colourful characters. JUKAI, now playing at the Blue Elephant Theatre, is … [Read more...]