Director Ninagawa Dies At 80
Yukio Ninagawa, who has died aged 80, was a great Japanese theatre director whose work was marked by its astonishing visual bravura and its ability to harmonize eastern and western traditions. Significantly, given the pictorial beauty of his productions, Ninagawa set out to be a painter but failed the Tokyo University of the Arts entrance exam. Instead he became an actor and only turned to directing when, in 1968, he formed an agitprop group known as Contemporary People’s Theatre. A scene from his production of “Hamlet” is pictured.
