“Nothing in “Musashi” follows a boring old straight line.”
-The New York Times

“I wasn’t bored once during this rich hypnotic show.”
-The Daily Telegraph

“Japanese poetry mightier than the sword.”
-New York Post

 

 

This is an extraordinary theatrical event: a production by the dazzling Yukio Ninagawa of a Zen comedy-drama by Hisashi Inoue that questions the samurai ethos and the cult of violent retribution. Although the production, played in Japanese with surtitles, runs for three hours, it is remarkable for its lightness, speed and benevolent pacifist instinct.

 

Inoue, who based his play on a 1930s novel, starts with a legendary incident in Japanese history: a duel in 1612 between two fierce samurai warriors in which the wily Musashi outwits his younger rival, Kojiro. But what, asks Inoue, if Kojiro didn't die? Accordingly, he projects the story forward six years, to show the two men turning up at a woodland Buddhist temple. They agree to fight another decisive duel in three days' time. In the interim, they attempt to wrong local grievances, and are regaled with songs and stories by the monks whose whole purpose is to end the cycle of violence and persuade the warriors that the meanest life is preferable to death.