What do you think?
Rate this book
Red Demon
In a land far away a stranger is washed up near an isolated fishing village. Unable to understand his language or why he looks so different, the villagers decide he is a demon and must be destroyed. Only one woman, also an outcast, befriends him.
Red Demon is a universal story told in a masterful performance of physical theatre by Hideki Noda and a cast of extraordinary European actors. Shot through with wit, ingenuity and sly humour, it reveals the conflict between compassion and suspicion in a closed community.
This production of Red Demon , which opened at the Young Vic in January 2003, was Noda's European English language premiere.
Red Demon is a universal story told in a masterful performance of physical theatre by Hideki Noda and a cast of extraordinary European actors. Shot through with wit, ingenuity and sly humour, it reveals the conflict between compassion and suspicion in a closed community.
This production of Red Demon , which opened at the Young Vic in January 2003, was Noda's European English language premiere.
72 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2003
13 people want to read
About the author
Hideki Noda
17 books2 followersHideki Noda (野田 秀樹 Noda Hideki, born on 20 December 1955) is an acclaimed Japanese actor, playwright and theatre director who has written and directed more than 40 plays in Japan, and is working to bring modern Japanese theatre to an international audience.
Noda was born in Nagasaki, Japan. He briefly attended Tokyo University to study law but eventually dropped out. Noda debuted his first play, An Encounter Between Love and Death during his second year of high school. His second play, The Advent of the Beast, was well received by critics in 1981. This led to his invitation to perform at the Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland, which he already participated in three years earlier. In 2008 he was also appointed artistic director of Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space in Ikebukuro, and became a professor in the Department of Scenography Design, Drama,and Dance at Tama Art University.
When he was four years old, his family moved from Kyushu to Tokyo. When he reached the age of 16, Noda wrote and staged his very first play. With his high-school friends, he decided to title it, Ai to Shi o Mitsumete (Gaze into Love and Death). Later on in 1976, Noda founded his theatre company named Yume no Yuminsha (Dreaming Bohemian), while he was still in Tokyo University as a law student. Yume no Yuminsha became the emblem of the country’s vibrant youth theatre firmament and the leader of a nationwide cultural movement in the early 1980s known as Sho-gekijo (Small-scale Theatre Movement).
In 1992, Noda went to London to study theatre. When he returned to Japan, he started the independent company Noda Map, to promote and produce his own plays. He is currently held in high regard within the Japanese theatre community. Japanese theatre director Yukio Ninagawa said of him, "Hideki Noda is the most talented playwright in contemporary Japan."
At the age of 27, Noda won Japan’s most prestigious theatre accolade, the Kishida Prize for Drama for Nokemono Kitarite (Descent of the Brutes). Tickets to his plays became the hottest of all to get a hold of. Further pushed by Japan’s economy, Yume no Yuminsha broke all kinds of records by drawing as much as 26,000 audience to a one-day event at which Noda staged his version of Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelungs presented as a Stonehenge trilogy at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo.
In 2006, Noda Hideki wrote The Bee which is coauthored by Colin Teevan. This play was adapted to theater from Tsutsui Yasutaka’s novel Mushiriai (Plucking at Each Other). In 2006, The Bee was first staged in English by Soho Theatre and NODA MAP, and in 2007 in Japan by NODA MAP. He is currently in charge of The New National Theatre, where he works as a director. His plays focus on including celebrities to attract a wider audience rather than experimenting with different forms. Even though he primarily focuses on who he casts to play characters, "he brings in new audiences aplenty and also surreptitiously manages to sneak in satirical themes that only someone with his calibre could."
He became artistic director at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre in 2009.
Noda was born in Nagasaki, Japan. He briefly attended Tokyo University to study law but eventually dropped out. Noda debuted his first play, An Encounter Between Love and Death during his second year of high school. His second play, The Advent of the Beast, was well received by critics in 1981. This led to his invitation to perform at the Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland, which he already participated in three years earlier. In 2008 he was also appointed artistic director of Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space in Ikebukuro, and became a professor in the Department of Scenography Design, Drama,and Dance at Tama Art University.
When he was four years old, his family moved from Kyushu to Tokyo. When he reached the age of 16, Noda wrote and staged his very first play. With his high-school friends, he decided to title it, Ai to Shi o Mitsumete (Gaze into Love and Death). Later on in 1976, Noda founded his theatre company named Yume no Yuminsha (Dreaming Bohemian), while he was still in Tokyo University as a law student. Yume no Yuminsha became the emblem of the country’s vibrant youth theatre firmament and the leader of a nationwide cultural movement in the early 1980s known as Sho-gekijo (Small-scale Theatre Movement).
In 1992, Noda went to London to study theatre. When he returned to Japan, he started the independent company Noda Map, to promote and produce his own plays. He is currently held in high regard within the Japanese theatre community. Japanese theatre director Yukio Ninagawa said of him, "Hideki Noda is the most talented playwright in contemporary Japan."
At the age of 27, Noda won Japan’s most prestigious theatre accolade, the Kishida Prize for Drama for Nokemono Kitarite (Descent of the Brutes). Tickets to his plays became the hottest of all to get a hold of. Further pushed by Japan’s economy, Yume no Yuminsha broke all kinds of records by drawing as much as 26,000 audience to a one-day event at which Noda staged his version of Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelungs presented as a Stonehenge trilogy at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo.
In 2006, Noda Hideki wrote The Bee which is coauthored by Colin Teevan. This play was adapted to theater from Tsutsui Yasutaka’s novel Mushiriai (Plucking at Each Other). In 2006, The Bee was first staged in English by Soho Theatre and NODA MAP, and in 2007 in Japan by NODA MAP. He is currently in charge of The New National Theatre, where he works as a director. His plays focus on including celebrities to attract a wider audience rather than experimenting with different forms. Even though he primarily focuses on who he casts to play characters, "he brings in new audiences aplenty and also surreptitiously manages to sneak in satirical themes that only someone with his calibre could."
He became artistic director at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre in 2009.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 10, 2017
Noda's 1996 play seems now quite prescient for the post-Brexit/45 world, in its depiction of an over-reaction to the 'Other'. Updating centuries old Japanese theatrical techniques, Noda spins his simple fable for the modern stage; I just wish it weren't quite so didactic and facile.
January 25, 2016
An allegory for xenophobia...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews