What happens to human beings in a fragmented world, perhaps without real substance? This is the question posed by the award-winning Japanese theatre company shelf.

What has happened to the self? Is it unravelling? It was in Ibsen's time that the idea of the inner self, the human ego, was born. Through Ghosts – Composition/Ibsen, director Yasuhito Yano wants to describe what happens in the inner selves of people who face the problems of today. In a world that is fragmented and perhaps without real substance.

The Japanese theatre company shelf has won several awards for their productions of Ibsen. In 2011 shelf received the Nagoya Citizens’ Art Festival Award for Theater for this interpretation of Ghosts. The company is known for challenging and spectacular productions.

In Ghosts – Composition/Ibsen, outsiders are brought into the production and the characters are forced to interact. Yano wants to identify the essence of Ibsen’s drama – an essence that lies in ruins when the idea of the human self is breaking down. Yano approaches the text from different perspectives, and in the distance between the actor and the text the key to understanding is found, according to the director.

Composed and directed by: Yasuhito Yano.

Ghosts – Composition/Ibsen (JP)