Talk and Dinner:
Tuesday 6 August 2019 7.30pm
Thenga Café (120 Cromer St, Kings Cross, London WC1H 8BS)

Performance:
Thursday 8 August 2019 7.30pm*
Tara Theatre (356 Garratt Lane, London, SW18 4ES)
*If you cannot attend this show, you can opt for another day/time, subject to availability

Price (all-inclusive price for the talk & dinner as well as theatre performance)
£43 for members and their guests
£50 for non-members

Book essential – Book online here
Booking deadline: Thursday 1 August 2019

The Japan Society is delighted to welcome Shimodate Kazumi, Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Company Japan, and Jatinder Verma, Artistic Director at Tara Theatre, for a special talk in conjunction with the forthcoming performance of Ainu Othello at Tara Theatre. In conversation, they will discuss the inspiration for this production and examine how the ainu background informs a reading of the play.

Ainu Othello is a stage adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy Othello, which is set in 1860 in northern island of Hokkaido. The title character is transformed into an indigenous Ainu, who falls in love with a Japanese woman and is betrayed by a friend (Iago) of mixed Ainu and Japanese heritage. Co-directed by Shimodate and Ainu theatre director Debo Akibe, this Othello offers a powerful mirror to all modern societies by making clear the corrosive effects of jealousy that fuels all discrimination.

Ainu Othello special talk & dinner
Tuesday 6 August 2019, 7.30pm at Thenga Café, King’s Cross
Guests will enjoy the talk over comforting European/Indian dinner with a drink. Thenga specialises in vegetarian / vegan dishes, but please let us know in advance if you have any specific dietary requirements.

Ainu Othello performance & post-performance meeting with cast and crew
Thursday 8 August 2019, 7.30pm at Tara Theatre
After the performance, guests will have a chance to meet the casts and crew including the Dance Group Piricap.
*If you cannot attend the show on 8 August, you can select an alternative performance time/date, subject to availability (performances will be held from August 7 to 10 – see all details here).
Please specify which show you would like to attend when booking.

Shimodate Kazumi is the President and Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Company Japan, and also Professor of English and Drama at Tohoku Gakuin University (TGU) in Sendai, in north eastern Japan. Between 1992 and 1993 he studied Shakespeare at Cambridge University as a Visiting Scholar and during his time there he joined the drama workshops of the Cambridge Experimental Theatre. He founded the Shakespeare Company Japan in 1992 and has worked as translator and director for all of the Company’s works. Their Macbeth was well received at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2000. He also joined a production of Savage Sensuality as Artistic Fellow at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in 2002. A collection of his company’s repertoire has been published in Japanese, and next year one of those plays will also be published in English translation by The Arden Shakespeare (Bloomsbury Publishing), as Re-imagining Shakespeare in Contemporary Japan (forthcoming in 2020).
Website: The Shakespeare Company Japan

Jatinder Verma is the Artistic Director of Tara and has led the company since its foundation in 1977. Over four decades, he has developed a unique cross-cultural theatre style, Binglish, where Asian theatre sensibilities meet European drama. His Shakespeare productions include Troilus and Cressida, Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest and Macbeth. In 2010 he initiated and oversaw with Claudia Mayer the re-development of Tara’s new Theatre in London as an award-winning architectural fusion of East and West. Jatinder was awarded an MBE for services to diversity in 2017.
Website: Tara Theatre

To reserve your place, please call the Japan Society office on 020 3075 1996, email events@japansociety.org.uk or submit the online booking form.