It has been announced that the play "Much Ado About Showa," adapted and directed by screenwriter and director Koki Mitani from William Shakespeare and starring actors Yo Oizumi and Rie Miyazawa, will be broadcast and streamed on WOWOW this fall.
"Showa Kara Much Ado About Nothing" is Mitani's first adaptation and direction of a Shakespeare work, based on "New Translation Much Ado About Nothing" (translated by Kawai Shoichiro, Kadokawa Bunko). It was performed in five locations nationwide starting from Setagaya Public Theater (Setagaya-ku, Tokyo) in May this year, and all tickets were sold out. In addition to Oizumi and Miyazawa, Ryusei Ryo, Matsumoto Honoka, Katsumi Takahashi, Minemura Rie, Matsushima Shota, and Yamazaki Hajime also starred.
The story is set in a Japanese house in the ancient capital of Kamakura. Professor Naruto (Takahashi), a German literature researcher, lives with his eldest daughter Biwako (Miyazawa), his second daughter Hiroko (Matsumoto), and their maid Asuka (Minemura). One day, when everyone is talking about a traveling troupe of entertainers who are coming to Kamakura for the first time in a long time, Biwako complains that she has never liked the troupe's star actor, Benisawa Dekutaro (Oizumi).
Then the rumored Kigōtarou comes to visit the Naruto family, accompanied by star actor Onoe Sadakurō (Ryusei) and young actor Araki Donpei (Matsushima). Biwa, also known as Kigōtarou, immediately engages in a fierce verbal battle. When the argument between the two dies down, Sadakurō is left alone with Kigōtarou and confesses that he has fallen in love with Hiroko. Then, a policeman on patrol, Dokubuchi (Yamazaki), appears... and so the story unfolds.
