Replicating success: touring to stages and audiences across the world
National Theatre of Scotland productions have toured to China, the USA, Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Poland and Ireland.
Executive Producer Neil Murray has lead us on many international adventures. Here he discusses a new partnership to us, creating a ‘replica’ production of Macbeth for a Japanese audience.
When two years ago on 14 July 2013, Alan Cumming completed the final performance of his ‘one man’, National Theatre of Scotland, Macbeth at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on New York’s Broadway, it looked like that was that. Alan was very clear that after a run of more than 80 exhausting performances on Broadway - added to the opening Tramway, Glasgow and Lincoln Center Festival, New York shows from summer 2012 - he had fully sated his desire to play Shakespeare’s great antihero.
(Alan Cumming, Macbeth, Tramway 2012)
Initially, this was a bit of a blow to us at the National Theatre of Scotland. We had high hopes of another zigzagging world tour in the mould of previous shows such as Black Watch or The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart. However, having seen what Alan was putting himself through, night after night, it was easier to understand his reasoning. The run ended and the entrepreneurial New York producers even auctioned off the set and props as a job lot, down to the shirt off Alan’s back.
So imagine our delight when on 13 July 2015 at Parco Theatre, Shibuya, Tokyo, we were able to say ‘something wicked this way comes’ once more. Only this time it isn’t Alan Cumming portraying more than 20 of Shakespeare’s characters from his most famous tragedy, but the brilliant Japanese actor Kuranosuke Sasaki. Everything else about the production looks and sounds the same – except crucially, the language. The rhythms are familiar, but it’s definitely Japanese that Sasaki is speaking.
(Kuranosuke Sasaki, Macbeth, Parco 2015)
So how has this version of the Scottish play, commissioned and produced by Scotland’s national theatre company ended up in a 460 seat theatre on the 9th floor of a shopping and restaurant mall in crazily busy Tokyo?
To recap the origins of the production, New York director Andrew Goldberg (who worked with the National Theatre of Scotland on the first US tour of Black Watch) came up with the notion of a single actor taking on the bulk of Shakespeare’s characters in the guise of a man incarcerated in some kind of mental health institution for a crime of which we are never explicitly told. Together with Alan Cumming and co-director John Tiffany, Andrew put together the original production.The Parco team saw the show in New York, liked it, met with Andrew and started a conversation with the National Theatre of Scotland.
(Kuranosuke Sasaki, Macbeth, Parco 2015)
The notion of ‘replica’ productions is not something we are particularly familiar with in Scotland, but in South East Asia they are commonplace. A producer sees a show they like, negotiates a license to present it, perhaps invites the original director over, and replicate or interpret the original production in their own language. I’m not sure if that’s how Parco thought this Macbeth would go, but being the National Theatre of Scotland we typically dug in about how we would want the show produced; to the highest standards. In addition to Andrew Goldberg being present to direct, we insisted a team of National Theatre of Scotland designers, associates and technicians travel to Tokyo to install and deliver the show. So it was, a National Theatre of Scotland team drawn from Scotland, England, the US and Portugal spent almost two weeks with their Japanese counterparts, overcoming both cultural and language differences and delivered a show we are all proud of.
(Ali Craig and Myra McFadyen, Macbeth, Tramway 2012)
Whilst often billed as a ‘One Man’ Macbeth, it’s worth pointing out there are two other crucial performers in the show. At Tramway and the Lincoln Center, we were lucky to have the brilliant Myra McFadyen and Ali Craig taking the two supporting roles. In Japan, Tamae Onishi and Masaya Yuri carried off those respective roles of the Doctor and Nurse with equal aplomb. However, it’s undeniable that the show lives or dies on the quality of the central actor.
(Kuranosuke Sasaki, Macbeth, Parco 2015)
The expectation and pressure on Alan Cumming, in our English language version, were enormous. He more than fulfilled those expectations in a bravura performance. Similarly, in Japan, Kuranosuke Sasaki is a leading man in theatre, film and television and faced similar pressures as Alan. His performance is stunning – complementary to Alan’s interpretation, but, crucially, not an imitation. We have now been blessed with two stunning, leading actors. Kuranosuke brings a terrible sadness to the role and will reprise it, across Japan, in Toyohashi, Osaka, Yokohama and Kitakyushu, putting himself though his nightly ordeal until 30th August.
The notion of the National Theatre of Scotland controlled ‘replica’ production has taught us many lessons and opened up new opportunities of keeping successful shows alive internationally in hitherto unthought-of ways. As Andrew Goldberg was invited on to the stage, taking a bow to thunderous applause alongside the Japanese actors on opening night, it was tempting to imagine the future possibilities: the Scottish Play, written by an Englishman, performed in Japanese but with English subtitles, co-produced by National Theatre Scotland and Parco, Tokyo, touring to stages and audiences across the world. But maybe that’s just the jetlag talking.
Parco’s presentation of the National Theatre of Scotland’s Macbeth is touring until 30 August 2015. Find out more and book tickets.
A version of this article was first published by The Herald, 17 July 2015.
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