• Review essay:LollaPalooka: Ashita no Ma-Joe: Rocky Macbeth, Written and Directed by Murai Yu. Performed in Japanese by Murai's company Kaimaku Pennant Race, with surtitles. Five Performances: 15–18 May 2019, at Japan Society in New York City
• John K. Gillespie (bio)

The performance space on Japan Society's stage had spectators seated so close as to be ringside the impending event. Inside the regular boxing ring was a miniature one, as though seen from the nosebleed seats. But all was right there before us, including fellow spectators. Everything in white, stimulating expectations: prefight meditation, perhaps, or merely the calm before a title bout's bloody storm? Clad in white spandex, a character appears and sits in a corner of the ring. His [End Page 126] first lines are a recorded voice, filling the placid, mono-color atmosphere, lamenting unsettled lives, one in remote Scotland, and another in an unpromising boxing ring in Japan. We hear a Macbethian plea, "On these foggy, filthy streets of Scotland, can I find a corner of my own?" Then, from Joe? "Storm, blow away all human treachery … only my boxing ring to remain." With only one character on stage, however, we discern Macbeth is Joe and Joe Macbeth, or, rather, it's Macbeth's story, channeling Joe's: "In this world, it will be enough just to have my ring, a corner of my own!" These and other lines feature the sentence ender "—ssho!" characteristic of Japanese spoken in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island—suggesting a location Japanese know that might resemble cold, remote Scotland.

Suddenly, Macbeth encounters the witches, ensconced under the ring-within-the-ring mat, punctuating their lines with their heads successively popping up against the rubbery mat, like white blobs in a game of whack-a-mole. "This white mat," the witches say, "it's his grave for sure!" Any sense of calm now eclipsed, this stark opening's ineluctable augury jolts the spectator, vividly adumbrating Macbeth's impending rise and demise.

Tearing myself away from this fascinating action to glance at other spectators, I note intense concentration but also blank stares. Wondering about that disembodied voice, those white blobs? While

Ashita no Joe/boxer Macbeth in the large ring, prior to meeting the witches. (Photo by Richard Termine)

[End Page 127] Macbeth is among Shakespeare's most known plays in Japan, all Japanese know Joe, from Ashita no Joe (Tomorrow's Joe), the mega-hit manga running from 1968 to 1973, subsequently becoming an animé and television series.¹ Japanese spectators would not be confused, but outside Japan, while Macbeth may be widely known, who, beyond a coterie of manga/animé aficionados, knows Tomorrow's Joe? Some confusion, therefore, made sense.

Murai Yu (b. 1978), among Japan's most innovative contemporary playwright-directors, has his own take on Japan's century-plus tradition of adapting Shakespeare. On his first US foray, the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival, his hilarious Romeo and Toilet received Four Stars from TimeOut New York, citing its "fantastic combination of ingenious movement, surreal story lines and dynamic, startlingly disciplined performers" (Japan Society Presents Play Guide 2019). That pithy description also applies to his most recent adaptation, Ashita no Ma-Joe: Rocky Macbeth, its title from Tomorrow's Joe and Macbeth's witches (majo means "witch"). The manga depicts a soap-opera tale of a confused orphan, later young ex-con, whose hardscrabble life leads him to boxing and to covet a championship belt, all conflated with the upwardly manipulated Macbeth's duplicitous rise and sordid downfall and his coveted crown—rocky paths both.

Murai established his company, Kaimaku Pennant Race (KPR) in 2006, its manga-like moniker suggesting a game, as in baseball's season opener, and a play's curtain. Tokyo-based KPR is known for tongue-in-cheek, absurdist adaptations of Western masterpieces, dialogue brimming with puns and word play reflecting Japanese popular culture, especially manga, animé, and video games, and ultimately universal aspects of human endeavor. Action is stylized, quick, declamation high-decibel, humor, and site gags abundant. The stage for Romeo and Toilet, for example, was adorned with 10...

• 评论文章：LollaPalooka：Ashita no Ma-Joe：Rocky Macbeth，由 Murai Yu 编剧和导演。由 Murai 的 Kaimaku Pennant Race 公司以日语演出，附有字幕。五场演出：2019 年 5 月 15-18 日，纽约日本协会
• 约翰 K.吉莱斯皮（生物）

日本协会舞台上的表演空间有观众坐得如此之近，以至于即将举行的活动就在马戏团旁边。普通拳击台里面是一个微型拳击台，仿佛是从流鼻血的座位上看到的。但一切都在我们面前，包括其他观众。一切都是白色的，令人兴奋的期望：也许是战前冥想，或者仅仅是冠军争夺战血腥风暴前的平静？穿着白色氨纶，一个角色出现并坐在戒指的一角。他的【完结第126页】第一行是一段录制的声音，充满了平静、单色的气氛，哀叹不安的生活，一个是在偏远的苏格兰，另一个是在日本一个没有前途的拳击场。我们听到麦克白式的恳求：“在苏格兰这些雾蒙蒙、肮脏的街道上，我能找到一个属于自己的角落吗？” 那么，从乔? “风暴，吹走所有人类的背叛……只剩下我的拳击台。” 然而，在舞台上只有一个角色的情况下，我们辨别麦克白是乔和乔麦克白，或者更确切地说，这是麦克白的故事，引导乔的：“在这个世界上，只要有我的戒指，我自己的角落就足够了！ ” 这些和其他行以句子结尾“-ssho！”为特色。在日本最北端的岛屿北海道使用的日语的特征——暗示了一个日本人知道的可能类似于寒冷、偏远的苏格兰的地方。

突然，麦克白遇到了女巫，她们躲在圈内圈垫子下，她们的头在橡胶垫上连续弹出，就像打鼹鼠游戏中的白色斑点一样，打断了她们的台词。“这个白色的垫子，”女巫们说，“肯定是他的坟墓！” 任何平静的感觉现在都黯然失色，这个鲜明的开场不可避免的预兆震撼了观众，生动地预示着麦克白即将崛起和消亡。

我把自己从这个迷人的动作中抽离出来，看向其他观众，我注意到强烈的注意力，但也有茫然的目光。想知道那个无形的声音，那些白色的斑点吗？尽管

Ashita no Joe/拳击手麦克白在大环中，在遇到女巫之前。（理查德·特明摄）

[结束第 127 页] 麦克白是莎士比亚在日本最著名的戏剧之一，所有日本人都知道乔，来自明日之乔(Tomorrow's Joe)，这部从 1968 年到 1973 年的大热漫画，随后成为动画和电视连续剧。¹日本观众不会感到困惑，但在日本之外，虽然麦克白可能广为人知，但除了漫画/动漫爱好者的小圈子之外，还有谁知道明天的乔？因此，有些混乱是有道理的。

村井优（生于 1978 年）是日本最具创新精神的当代剧作家兼导演之一，他对日本百年来改编莎士比亚的传统有着自己的看法。在他首次亮相美国的 2009 年纽约国际艺穗节上，他那滑稽的罗密欧与厕所获得了TimeOut New York 的四颗星，理由是其“巧妙的动作、超现实的故事情节和充满活力、纪律严明的表演者的完美结合”（日本协会礼物）播放指南 2019）。这种简洁的描述也适用于他最近的改编作品，Ashita no Ma-Joe：Rocky Macbeth，它的标题来自Tomorrow's Joe和 Macbeth's 女巫（majo意思是“女巫”）。这部漫画描绘了一个混乱的孤儿的肥皂剧故事，后来年轻的前骗子，他艰苦的生活使他成为拳击手并渴望获得冠军腰带，所有这些都与被向上操纵的麦克白的两面派的崛起和肮脏的垮台以及他梦寐以求的王冠混为一谈——岩石路径两者。

Murai 于 2006 年成立了他的公司 Kaimaku Pennant Race (KPR)，其漫画般的绰号暗示了一场比赛，如棒球赛季揭幕战和比赛的帷幕。总部位于东京的 KPR 以对西方杰作的诙谐、荒谬的改编、充满双关语的对话和反映日本流行文化（尤其是漫画、动漫和视频游戏）的文字游戏，以及最终人类努力的普遍方面而闻名。动作风格化、快速、高分贝、幽默、现场插科打诨丰富。例如，罗密欧和厕所的舞台装饰着 10...