Our Macbeth 　- The Season of Inferno-

 The action of Shakespeare’s Macbeth has been shifted to Northern Japan around 1000AD, when the dominant clans such as Fujiwara, Kiyohara, and Ambe were fighting for the position of Northern Shogun, while the power of the South was aiming at conquering the North.

 One day Makubesu (Macbeth), the lord of Akita Castle, with Banko (Banquo), the lord of Isawa Castle, comes across three Itako (a sort of sibyls), being told that Makubesu and Banko’s son will become Shogun in future. Itako, mostly blind, resides in Osorezan (the mountain of fear) and they are believed to be telling the words of hearer’s ancestors. While hearing the message from his father, Makubesu finds his inner voice ? desire to be Shogun. Stragely enough , only Makubesu starts to fall in the season of Inferno ? tragic destiny of blood and self-destruction as if he were fallen in love with Itako.

 Makubesu comes to share the secret plot of murduring Shogun Danka (Duncan) with his beloved wife Makubesu-gozen (Lady Macbeth). The love’s bond between them seems to be strong. Nonetheless, each in its own way gets to be tortured by the pangs of conscience and a desperate sense of lonliness, the moment their ambition is to be realized.

 The drama elicits the pity and isolation of the protagonist who has to climb up the ladders of miseries, to accumulate murders of the people whom he fears, which sinks the more deeply the more strongly he steps. Makubesu is to be perished by Maroka(Mulcom), and the peace returns to the north. Makudafu(Macdaff) comes across Itako, being told that he will become Shogun. Makudafu, however, leaves laughing away Itako’s words.

“History moves around but never repeats itself.”

The Shakespeare Company Japan

 The Company’s working base is located in Sendai (the largest city in North Japan). Visiting the Tohoku (North Japan) a hundred years ago, a Scottish called it “Scotland in Japan”.

 The Company was founded in the Tohoku in 1992, proposing the formation of “the Tohoku Dramatic Movement” (intentionally echoing “the Irish Dramatic Movement”) with an eye on “myriad-minded” Shakespeare.

 The Company’s ultimate concern is to build the Japanese Globe theatre in Sendai, overlooking the river by 2010, where the Asian Shakespeare Festival is to be opened.

 Since the inaugural 1995 production of “Romeo and Juliet” we have been enjoying highly successful seasons through creating “North Japanism Style” which cannot be perceived neither in Kurosawa nor in Ninagawa.

 The great features of “North Japanism Style” lie in the vibrant use of dialect and the fascinating adaptations.