SPAC (Shizuoka Performing Arts Center)’s Mugen Noh Othello (directed by MIYAGI Satoshi), for which Professor TANAKA Tomoaki of the Department of Architecture, School of Science and Technology, designed the spatial composition, was performed on June 7 and 8 as the opening production of the Theatre Section of the 54th Venice Biennale in Italy. Mugen Noh is a style of Noh theatre in which ghosts and other spirits appear and recount events and emotions from their lives. This production reinterprets Shakespeare’s Othello in that format.
Professor TANAKA specializes in architectural planning, architectural design, and architectural design theory. Expanding his scope to related fields such as urbanism and landscape studies, he conducts both research and practical work on the theories and methods of architectural planning and design. He has been involved in this production since its 2005 premiere, for which he designed a temporary Noh stage in the Japanese garden of the Tokyo National Museum. For its 2018 revival at the Shizuoka Arts Theatre, he reconfigured the stage space to accommodate the transition from an outdoor to an indoor setting, developing spatial compositions that responded to the characteristics of the venue and its surrounding environment.
For the Venice performances, transportation and installation constraints led him to abstract elements such as the hanging dolls and old well that had appeared in previous productions and to reconfigure them to suit the local venue. The production was subsequently staged at the Geochang International Theatre Festival in South Korea on August 1 and 2, with Professor TANAKA again responsible for the spatial composition. In doing so, he extended an architectural design perspective, one that reconfigures space according to the characteristics and constraints of each venue, into the realm of stage performance.
