Akutagawa’s "Hell Screen", composed and performed by Ronen Shapira as a new original opera

The Theater Χ produces the Ryunosuke Akutagawa's masterpiece novel "Jigokuhen (Hell Screen)" as a new original opera, composed and performed by an Israeli artist Ronen Shapira. The theater is located in Ryogoku, where is the birthplace of Ryunosuke Akutagawa.  He was born 130 years ago, and spent more than half of his life there.

One of the towering figures of modern Japanese writing, Akutagawa's early career was distinguished by imaginative, beautifully crafted stories of medieval Japan, rich with period detail.

It tells the story of the conflict between a powerful lord and a greatest painter in the Heian-period.  Yoshihide, a greatest painter was ordered to paint the best picture of hell, but in order to do so, he wanted to watch the burning of a lady alive in a coach. (Can a person burn a person? What is the "way of life" when one is burned by others?)

In the end, it was Yoshihide's beloved daughter who was burned in front of his eyes. Finishing the supreme hell picture, Yoshihide also hangs himself.

The compositions and performances of Ronen Shapira, who tackles the multi-layered and disastrous themes of Akutagawa's works, also break out of the conventional framework of "Western-dominated music" and aim to transcend the "now". In other words, this is literally an original new opera that "aims for fusion rather than salad mixing" by making full use of non-average oriental, Arabic, jazz, and rock ...... tones with a modern sense.

<Outline of the performance>

Theater-X (Cai) The 30th anniversary Production

A New Original opera "JIGOKUHEN" (Hell Screen)

Original story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Script by Sho Iriichi

Composed and performed by Ronen Shapira (Israel)

Direction/Art direction Kuniaki Ida(Italy)

Performance schedule:

September 23 (Fri.) 14:00 / September 24 (Sat.) 14:00 / September 25 (Sun.) 14:00

Ticket: ¥1,000 all seats unreserved (¥500 for high school students and younger)

Venue: Ryogoku Theatre Χ, Ryogoku, Tokyo

Ryogoku City Core, 2-10-14 Ryogoku, Sumida-ku, Tokyo

tel: 03-5624-1181 fax: 03-5624-116

http://www.theaterx.jp/ info@theaterx.jp