Japan Society's façade with centennial banners. Photo © Japan Society.
In conjunction with Japan Society’s gallery exhibit, “Radicalism in the Wilderness,” Japan society will look back at Japan’s radical relevance through 1960s experimental practices.
Ashita no Ma-Joe: Rocky Macbeth is a play based on the popular 1960s-70s manga, or comic, mixed with Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
This unique combination illustrates how the dominance of Western theatrical canon, like Shakespeare, before WWII was challenged by theater makers of the late 1960s-70s, and today by Kaimaku Pennant Race’s interpretation.This theme of defiance is evident in mainstream culture through the extreme popularity of underdog boxer Joe Yabuki in the series from the 1960s to today.
This performance will be held in conjunction with the Gallery’s exhibition in order to illustrate how this fictional character became a symbol of the times.
Please see reviews of this performance.
Reinterpretations of The Bard’s work are a dime a dozen, but this has got to be one of the most striking examples I’ve ever encountered, streamlining the source material’s sprawling narrative into a just over an hour of nonstop surreal, absurdist humor.
There are three witches waiting there.
Macbeth is also there, in the hearts of greedy people.
The voices of the witches are the voices inside Macbeth’s heart.
Even after Macbeth is long gone and another champion arises,
the witches won’t stop whispering prophecies to the next Macbeth.
All of the dead Macbeths await the arrival of a
new Macbeth to enter the ring.
We also have been believing in a false sense of security
that is nothing more than a prophecy.
The Birnam Wood has already started to move.
What will the witches whisper to us,
the people who have been pretending not to notice?
What will we whisper to the future Macbeths to come?
by Yu Murai
/// Information ///
Title /
Ashita no Ma-Joe: Rocky Macbeth
Writer and director /
Yu Murai
Actor /
Takuro Takasaki,
G.K.Masayuki
Kazuma Takeo
Date /
Wednesday, May 15, 7:30 PM
— Followed by a MetLife Meet-the-Artists Reception
Thursday, May 16, 7:30 PM
Friday, May 17, 8:30 PM
Saturday, May 18, 2:30 PM
Saturday, May 18, 8:30 PM
Place /
Japan Society AUDITORIUM
Japan Society 333 East 47th Street New York, NY 10017
Website in Japan Society /
https://www.japansociety.org/event/ashita-no-ma-joe-rocky-macbeth-1
Tickets /
https://tickets.japansociety.org/shows/ashita%20no%20ma-joe-%20rocky%20macbeth/events