Theatre Cocoon in Shibuya is renowned for staging some of the best contemporary drama in Japan, whether from established masters such as Yukio Ninagawa and Hideki Noda, or young blades like Suzuki Matsuo.
Eleven years ago, however, this vibrant company, based in the spacious Bunkamura complex, set itself another quite distinct, if not entirely unrelated challenge -- to liberate ultra-traditional classical kabuki from its elitist straightjacket and make it as accessible and attractive to the general public as its other productions there.
Back then, when Theatre Cocoon first put on a spectacular version of the famous ghost story "Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (Yotsuya Ghost Story)" with star kabuki actor Kankuro Nakamura, since awarded the name of Kanzaburo, playing the lead, the classical-contemporary crossover was nothing short of a sensation.