Intercultural Intersections in a Noh-style Hamlet: (Re)presentations of and Exchanges between Shakespeare and the Japanese Stage

Abstract

At first glance, Kurita Yoshihiro’s noh-style Hamlet (2007), an installment of the Ryutopia Noh Theatre Shakespeare series, may seem like a straightforward translation of a Shakespearean text to a Japanese context. However, the re-conceptualising of Hamlet to fit a traditional noh stage can itself be an intercultural process, as creative decisions become a way in which (inter)cultural interactions and negotiations can take place. Paying close attention to Kurita’s Hamlet/Hamlet, this paper will discuss the various intercultural exchanges between Shakespeare and culture(s) that appropriate and adapt him and his texts. Additionally, the close reading of this performance will assess how intercultural praxis has shaped and changed the relevance and development of both indigenous and Western theatre practice and performance modes in Japan. The intermingling of traditional Japanese art forms and modern performance modes in this production alerts us to the continuities and divergences of Japan’s (theatre) culture and history, and Japanese identity. As such, this case study will also examine how the cultural and aesthetic interactivities in contemporary Japanese Shakespeare productions are not only negotiated interculturally but intraculturally as well.