Japan's Chijinkai Theatre Company is currently in all too brief residence at the Civic Theatre with a play by Taichi Yamada about the extraordinary life of a man, son of an Irishman and a Greek mother, who lived and died in Japan from 1890-1904. Lafcadio Hearn was abandoned at the age of four by his separated parents, and brought up in Dublin by relatives.
When he left Ireland, the young man embarked on a continuous journey of discovery that finally led him at age 40 to Japan, with which he felt an instinctive affinity. Writers in the west could describe trees being cut down or birds being shot; but here the wood cried out in pain and the bird grieved for its mate. This new country had a poetic soul and a culture rooted in the past, and Hearn became addicted to it.
He married, taking on responsibility for the maintenance of a large extended family, taught for a living and wrote many books of folk tales and ghost stories. But Japan was changing, moving far from the country he idolised into industry, science and militarism. The world was moving on while Hearn tried to stand still, preserving the values that few now appreciated.
The character of Hearn is played by a Japanese actor, Morio Kazama, which strikes a jarring note; the complicated relationships that should exist between him and his Japanese relations and colleagues often appear merely natural. But the production is so lucid (assisted by English surtitles and narration) that this tension is soon absorbed into the story's unfolding. The acting is uniformly impressive.
Other factors add to the creative and colourful atmosphere. The set design is of a house interior with translucent walls and sliding doors, a home supporting a different way of life, quite beautifully lit. There is a sprinkling of the tales beloved by Hearn, vocally and visually absorbing. Depth is added to it all by the sense of Japan in the throes of change, for which Ireland has its analogies. Certainly Hearn would have thought so.
(Plays to October 13th)