In this column, the curtain rose on 2003 with a new production of Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" directed by Yukio Ninagawa. Now, the final curtain of the year comes down here with another blockbuster from Japan's international-drama standard-bearer -- his version of Shakespeare's "The Life and Death of King Richard III." In between, the indefatigable phenomenon that is 68-year-old Ninagawa has also staged acclaimed new productions of the Bard's "Pericles" and "Hamlet," as well as one of the Greek classics, "Electra."

So this time, the director is surely to be excused this reprise of his visually stunning and imaginative "King Richard III," which debuted in 1999 in his ongoing project with the Saitama Arts Center to produce all of Shakespeare's plays. Then, as now, he cast the charismatic Masachika Ichimura in the starring role.

At the Nissei Theater, as the play begins, the audience is confronted with a three-story construction -- part cage, part castle it seems -- that will sometimes represent the Tower of London, open out into ramparts as the tale unfolds, or be shielded in parts by mirrors to create "rooms" on stage. A "horse" then wanders in, canters around a bit -- and drops dead. Next, from high above, a dead horse, other animal parts and garbage rain down, crashing thunderously on stage. Then a misshapen medieval knight we'll soon know as Richard strides out, looks the audience in the eye, and chillingly declaims that famous line: "Now is the winter of our discontent."