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Fiona Mountford's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Simon McBurney.
Cast: Complicite, The Setagaya Public Theatre
Description: Inspired by two works by Japanese writer Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Complicite's newly-devised work is a story of passion, devotion and power. Directed by Simon McBurney. Performed in Japanese with English surtitles.
Trains: Tube/BR: Barbican/Moorgate 
Phone: 0845120 7550
Website: www.barbican.org.uk
Email: info@barbican.org.uk
Extra info: Pub, Parking, Food
Simon McBurney and his Complicite company last made waves at the Barbican by making maths easy in the award-winning A Disappearing Number. Here, they make Japan difficult and there are bewildering times when, rather like Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray, everyone seems to be lost in translation.
Fusing two 1933 works from novelist Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, McBurney and his 10 Japanese performers spirit us far away to the stylised world of shadows that is the 19th century Meiji Era.
There’s ritual elegance, hypnotic wonder and a daunting cultural chasm, as the peculiar story of a sado-masochistic relationship unfolds. Shunkin, blind mistress of stringed instrument the shamisen, takes up with her servant-pupil Sasuke, subjecting him to a life of complicit humiliation and the unlearned in Japanese tradition to no little confusion.
A framing narrative helps us to get more of a handle on the indisputably stylish action, which comes complete with live music and puppetry. A contemporary actor records Tanizaki’s work for radio, and contemplates her own troubled romance in the refracted light from Shunkin/Sasuke. It’s all very intriguing yet ultimately distancing, and the constant focus-pulling battle between the action and the far-away surtitles is no help.
Until 21 February (020 7638 8891, www.barbican.org.uk).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
