The 2020 Takasago & Between the Stones tour will involve 18 collaborating artists from Japan, the USA and the UK.

This unique programme of classical and contemporary noh is presented as part of the 2020 Japan Season of Culture, which coincides with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The performance tour opens with the world premiere performance at the Southbank Centre, Purcell Room, London on 29 January 2020. The tour is co-produced with Unanico and in association with Oshima Theatre and Theatre Nohgaku, featuring Kinue Oshima, the only professional woman noh actor of the Kita School, as the main actor for the world premiere of Between the Stones. Also, for his first international tour, the Oshima family rising star actor, 11-year-old Iori Oshima. There will also be major presentation talks by Hideta Kitazawa, master noh mask maker from Tokyo.

28 January, London - British Library, Eliot Room
Getting to noh masks: Hideta Kitazawa
(Tickets will go on sale for Priority Bookings on 29 November 2019, and for General Release on 4 December 2019.)

29 January, London - Southbank Centre, Purcell Room
Takasago & Between the Stones (World Premiere Performance)
Details/booking here.

30 January, London - Japan House
Getting to noh masks: Hideta Kitazawa

30 January, London - British Library, Knowledge Centre Theatre
Getting to noh performance highlights
(Tickets will go on sale for Priority Bookings on 29 November 2019, and for General Release on 4 December 2019.)

31 January, London - Southbank Centre, Purcell Room
Takasago & Between the Stones (Last night performance)
Details/booking here.

31 January, Southend - Special all-day workshop with East 15 Acting School, University of Essex
Getting to noh masks: Hideta Kitazawa (Student workshop)

1 February, 4.40pm, Kilkenny, Ireland - Watergate Theatre
Getting to noh masks with Hideta Kitazawa
Details/booking here.

1 February, 7.30pm, Kilkenny, Ireland - Watergate Theatre
Takasago & Between the Stones
Details/booking here.

2 February, 4.30pm, Wexford, Ireland - National Opera House, Jerome Hynes Theatre
Getting to noh masks with Hideta Kitazawa
Details/booking here.

2 February, 7.30pm, Wexford, Ireland - National Opera House, Jerome Hynes Theatre
Details/booking here.

4 February, Paris - Musee Guimet, National Museum for Asian Arts
Getting to noh masks with Hideta Kitazawa

4 February, Paris - Musee Guimet, National Museum for Asian Arts
Takasago & Between the Stones (Tickets on sale in November)

6 February, Coventry - Special all-day event for the Coventry Young Ambassadors
Getting to noh masks with Hideta Kitazawa, Kinue Oshima, Richard Emmert and Jannette Cheong, in association with the Japan Society

Performing both classical and contemporary noh in the same programme allows the audience to gain some experience of similarities and differences between classical noh (sung in classical Japanese) and contemporary noh (sung in contemporary English). Both will be using traditional noh techniques.

Please check the website for further details as they are updated.