Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group × NIWA GEKIDAN PENINO "The Bathhouse of Honest Desires"

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KV: ©Hsuan-Lang LIN, provided by National Theater & Concert Hall

Inspired by Yasunari Kawabata’s novel The House of the Sleeping Beauties, The Bathhouse of Honest Desires is a Japanese-Taiwanese co-production written and directed by two internationally renowned playwrights and directors. This work by Kuro Tanino, the director of NIWA GEKIDAN PENINO, and Chia-Ming Wang, the director of Shakespeare’s Wild Sister Group in Taiwan, first premiered at Taiwan’s National Theater and Concert Hall in 2024. Across countless discussions, the two artists put many hours into completing this narrative.
“Once upon a time, in a small island country, there was a bathhouse with no name.” Beginning with this narration, the play is performed by Japanese and Taiwanese actors who each speak in their own languages. A former psychiatrist, Tanino is an artist whose distinct narrative world is akin to a beautiful nightmare upon which the subconscious desires of humans are projected. Wang specializes in remixing visual and sound effects and masterfully reconstructs stories through his direction. A unique cast of Japanese and Taiwanese performers will deliver a fairy tale for adults, the fruits of the two artists’ experimental collaboration.

Chia-Ming Wang (Taiwan), Kuro Tanino (Japan)

©Ya-Chun YANG

Chia-Ming Wang (Taiwan)

Graduated from the Department of Geography at National Taiwan University and The Graduate Institute of Theatre Performance and Playwriting at Taipei National University of the Arts. Currently serves as the artistic director of Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group (莎士比亞的妹妹們的劇團), known for its intricate style, experimental approach, and popular appeal. Through uniquely designed performance structures, he collaborates closely with actors to explore and expand the possibilities of theater.
In 2018, he was invited to Tokyo Festival, where he presented “Café Lumière”. In 2019, her work “Dear Life” (親愛的人生) was featured at the Festival d’Automne à Paris as an invited production—marking the first time in the festival’s 48-year history that a Taiwanese play was included in the program.
His wide-ranging work includes directing the third segment of the opening ceremony for The World Games 2009 in Kaohsiung, serving as a second- and final-round jury member for the 51st Golden Horse Awards in 2014, and acting as curator and ceremony director for the Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music from 2014 to 2016.

Kuro Tanino (Japan)

Born in 1976 in Toyama Prefecture, Kuro Tanino is the founder, resident playwright, and director of NIWA GEKIDAN PENINO. He was in a Senior Fellow of The Saison Foundation until 2015. In 2000, while still a medical student, he established NIWA GEKIDAN PENINO, and has since written and directed all of the company’s works. His productions have been invited to numerous major theater festivals both in Japan and internationally, particularly in Europe.
In 2016, he received the 60th Kishida Kunio Drama Award for “Jigokudani Onsen, Mumyo no Yado”. The same year, he was awarded the Kita Nippon Shimbun Arts Prize and the Grand Prize of the 71st ACA National Arts Festival. He received the 36th Toyama Award for Culture and Arts Category in 2019.
In July 2022, he was appointed Policy Advisor for the City of Toyama. As of 2024, he serves as a jury member for the Kishida Kunio Drama Award. In May 2025, He was appointed as a Toyama City policy adviser.

: Chia-Ming Wang (Taiwan), Kuro Tanino (Japan)

FA, Chia-En Yang, Tai-Hao Tsuei, Yi-En Chen, Pei-Yu Hung

©叮咚

FA

©呂威聯

Chia-En Yang

©Kris Kang

Tai-Hao Tsuei

©蔡之凡

Yi-En Chen

©石田真澄

Pei-Yu Hung

Hairi Katagiri, Kiyobumi Kaneko, Sen Fujimaru

©Stardust Promotion,Inc.

Hairi Katagiri

Kiyobumi Kaneko

Sen Fujimaru

Shakespeare's Wild Sisters Group

Established in 1995, Shakespeare’s Wild Sister Group (莎士比亞的妹妹們的劇團) is a Taiwanese theater company led by Chia-Ming Wang. The group’s name is inspired by a character in English writer Virginia Woolfe’s “A Room of One’s Own” and signifies breaking the spells that oppress women and their brilliance within a male-centric system. Exploring a visionary aesthetic and style of theater, the company has presented experimental new works each year. They actively participate in intercultural collaborations at home and abroad, and have performed in various places including Hong Kong, Macao, Beijing, Qingdao, Busan, Tokyo, Berlin, Singapore, Kobe, Paris, and Avignon.
Wang, the company head, is a Taiwanese director and playwright known for his intricate, experimental, and approachable direction. He deeply engages in the potential of theater by working together with the actors to design specialized styles of performance. His works, such as Café Lumière (2018, Tokyo Festival) and Dear Life (2019, Festival d’Automne à Paris) , have garnered international praise. In addition to creating theater performances, he has expanded his career in recent years to include international cultural exchanges, creative platform management, cultural policy advising, and drama education.

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NIWA GEKIDAN PENINO

Since its formation in 2000, NIWA GEKIDAN PENINO has shared its intricate artistry and distinct vision of the world. The theater company is known for its keen attention to the performance space itself: works have been staged outdoors, in the founder’s apartment (known as Hakobune), and other unlikely venues. From 2009 onwards, the group has been invited to numerous performing arts festivals at home and abroad, and has ventured into new artistic fields in recent years through works such as “The Dark Master VR”, a VR theater piece.

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★=Tickets with post-performance theater tour in English is available (TBA)
▲=Relaxed Performance
○=Portable captioning devices will be available for guests who are deaf or hard of hearing. (Reservation required)

: Doors open 30 mins before the performance starts

: Japanese, Chinese

: Japanese, English, Chinese (Traditional Chinese)

: 100 MIN

[All seats reserved / Tax included]

Adult S Reserve	JPY 6,000
Adult A Reserve	JPY 4,000
U29s S Reserve	JPY 3,000
U29s A Reserve	JPY 2,000
U18s	JPY 1,000
Disount for Persons with Disabilities	10％ discount from adult prices(S/A)

Children below school age will not be admitted.
If you have purchased a special discount ticket (limited availability) for U29s, U18s, or high school students and younger, you will be required to present your ID at the reception desk on the performance day. In case of no confirmation, you will be asked to pay the difference to the adult price.
If you have a disability certificate or Mirairo ID, you can purchase ticket at a discount rate. For details, please contact the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre box office (0570-010-296; 10:00-19:00 except venue holidays.) or visit the official website and check “Hello and Welcome (Attendee Support)”.
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: On general sale from: Thursday, August 7

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Stage Manager: Grace Teng
Stage Design: Hsuan-Hsun Cheng
Costume Design: Ping-Ping Chih, Taco Chang
Sound Design: To-Fu Chen
Light Design: Tien-Hung Wang
Music: Blaire Ko
Producer: Yukio Nitta、Chika Onozuka

Program Coordinator: Chinami Yoda
Producer: Nobutaka Nakahara

Performing Arts Festival: Autumn Meteorite 2025 Tokyo Ticket Center

+81-3-6812-1663

- Weekdays (Closed Days) 11:00am - 5:00pm

ticket@autumnmeteorite.jp

Tokyo Festival Executive Committee Office

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- Weekdays (Closed Days) 11:00am - 5:00pm

Tour Information: Sun., Sep. 21 – Mon., Sep. 22, 2025

Sat., Sep. 27 – Sun., Sep. 28, 2025

Organizer: Tokyo Festival Executive Committee [Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)]
Support: Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan Japan Arts Council
: the National Culture and Arts Foundation, Taiwan / Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government
Sponsor: Asahi Group Japan, Ltd.
Media Partner: Tokyo Art Beat
Produced by: Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group、NIWA GEKIDAN PENINO (Arche LLC.) Premiere / Commissioned by: National Theater & Concert Hall, Taiwan
Residency support: Kinosaki International Arts Center (Toyooka City)