Dibs

A Japanese theatrical troupe is performing the Celtic chivalry epic Tristan and Isolde — Cornish knight, Irish princess, love potion, danger, escape, mortal wounds, misery — set not in the misty, chilly region of its origins but in Okinawa, Honshu and Hokkaido — with Tristan as a tribal Ainu. According to the Japan Times, “Satoshi Miyagi’s renowned Ku Na’uka contemporary theater company” is staging their new version at the Tokyo National Museum from July 24 to 30: “Writing in the original program notes, Miyagi explained that although … this ancient story was one of his all-time favorites, he had never found a way to clearly address its themes. However, he said he was eventually inspired to write and stage the work when he had the idea of projecting Tristan’s pure, knightly, but ultimately spurned character through that of the great Showa Era novelist Yukio Mishima…. This production casts the heroine, Isolde (Mikari), wearing a vivid Ryukyu costume, while her secret lover, Tristan (Koichi Otaka), is portrayed as one of the original Ainu inhabitants of Hokkaido.” Pure, knightly, ultimately spurned … but does the Mishima-Tristan (the Mishtan? Trishima?) commit harakiri at the end? You’ll have to pay 6,000 yen (and go to Tokyo) to find out.