Kiwoong Sung’s Three Sisters’ Foreign Service Kyoto Art Center Feb 22 2020 https://www.kac.or.jp/events/27677/ Adapations of Shakespeare to other periods abound. By re-setting the Venice of Italian renaissance of The Merchant of Venice to a cosmopolitan 18 th c century social whirl, one can select from wonderful options for costumes and sets, but also can maintain the enduring themes of animosity between Christians and Jews, oppression of women, and evils of scrupulous capitalism. At other times, plays in contemporary clothing or language reinvigorate a classic by jarring juxtapositions of antique customs and ethics with the passions and resonant issues of the day—the Mikado set at a seaside spa in 19 th century Britain; Ivo van Hove’s Network , a “mad as hell” cry for help in the present chaotic, media, messianic moment. At other times, such transplantations can create comic or hideous monsters, obscuring...
an occasional document of theatrical life in Kyoto and the virtual world at the beginning of the 21st century