Marcos Morau’s new work, Marcos Jōruri: Kinkakuji, receives its world premiere at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre Playhouse, bringing to Japan a new form of jōruri in which dancers and puppets perform together. The original work is Kinkakuji by Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫).
Marcos Morau’s latest work, Marcos Jōruri: Kinkakuji, receives its world premiere at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre Playhouse from 29 August to 6 September 2026. The production is an international co-production by Bunkamura Produce and La Veronal. Direction and choreography are by Morau, with music by Maria Arnal and a script by Roberto Fratini. The production is positioned as an attempt to fuse a contemporary directorial approach with traditional elements.
The work incorporates elements of bunraku, traditional Japanese puppet theatre, and seeks to make visible moments in which dancers and puppets move between the living and the artificial. In the course of researching bunraku, Morau aims to capture the essence of a beauty in which the boundary between those who manipulate and those who are manipulated dissolves. The production is expected to be structured around the power of jōruri narration and sound, bringing words and the body together. It also features an international ensemble including actors, dancers and Japanese instrumentalists.
The cast includes puppet performers such as Yoshida Tamasuke (吉田 玉助), kabuki actors, young performers and inheritors of traditional arts such as Suenaga Hikari (末永 光) and Onoe Mahiro (尾上 眞秀), and 7 dancers selected from more than 1,200 applicants. In addition to jōruri narration by the Takemoto ensemble, Spanish singer Maria Arnal is responsible for the music, as participants from Japan and abroad involved in directing and performance explore new possibilities for puppet jōruri. The production details also list Yukio Mishima’s (三島 由紀夫) Kinkakuji as the original work, Max Glaenzel for set design, Silvia Delagneau for costumes, and Azuma Tokuyo (吾妻 徳陽) and others for Japanese dance choreography.
Comments from the cast and creative team are also introduced as part of the production. Yoshida Tamasuke (吉田 玉助) discusses his experience as a bunraku puppet performer, Nakamura Ichitaro (中村 壱太郎) speaks about the stimulation of rehearsing for the production, and Suenaga Hikari (末永 光) reflects on personal growth and support. Onoe Mahiro (尾上 眞秀) expresses enthusiasm for balancing tradition with new territory, while the production as a whole is positioned as a new form of expression centred on the themes of “beauty and ruin.”