Shizuoka Performing Arts Center: Medea

Satoshi Miyagi, celebrated Artistic Director of SPAC and successor to the legendary director Tadashi Suzuki, transforms the Greek masterpiece Medea into a play-within-a-play set in a late 19th-century traditional Japanese restaurant where male members of the establishment call upon the female waitresses for entertainment. Performed to live musical accompaniment, Miyagi’s Medea is a visual feast comparable to a kabuki play. With his signature bunraku puppet theater -inspired style that utilizes two actors per role–one to speak and one to move–Miyagi reveals Euripides’ tragic story through the lens of Japan’s imperialist and male-dominated Meiji era. New Yorkers will finally be introduced to this stunning and internationally acclaimed production, which has traveled to 20 cities and 11 countries since its premiere in 1999. In Japanese with English Subtitles.