Re-defining the ‘Foreign' of ‘Foreign Shakespeares' in Asia: Ninagawa Yukio's Kabuki Twelfth Night and its Audience

Abstract

This paper tries to re-define the meaning of the word ‘Foreign’ when we say ‘Foreign Shakesperes’ in Asia. To prove this, it analyzes Ninagawa Yukio’s Kabuki Twelfth Night comparing Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. This paper finally argues that performing Shakespeare in Japan entails revising and renewing Shakespeare, and eventually necessitates an attempt at making the familiar foreign, and thus re-defining the foreign-familiar relationship between Shakespeare and Japan’s local performative modes. This also suggests that we will need to re-consider the ways of discussing ‘domestication’ and ‘indigenization,’ as well as ‘intercultural’ performance, of Shakespeare.