Overview

Join us for an engaging afternoon exploring the richness of Japanese language and culture through the lens of translation. This is the first in the Japanese Spring Series to delve into the art of translation through a case study of a theatre production of King Lear.

This event offers a unique opportunity to examine how meaning travels across cultures, and how nuance, context, and cultural detail are preserved—or transformed—in the process. We will analyse the means by which a team of creatives, including director, translator and actors, stay faithful to an original conception while rendering its essential truth into a form recognisable to a new audience with fresh hinterlands of reference, expectation and experience.

Date & Time: Saturday, 9 May 2026, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Optional film screening: 4:00 pm - 7:20 pm

Drinks reception: 7:20 pm - 8:30 pm

Programme

2:00 pm: Doors open

2:15 - 3:00 pm: Session 1 Pre-screening Talk and Discussion 1 – Translation

3:00 - 4:00 pm: Session 2 Pre-screening Talk and Discussion 2 – English theatre in Japanese

4:00-7:20 pm: Special Film Screening 'King Lear’ directed by Phillip Breen, starring Shinobu Otake as King Lear, Rie Miyazawa as Goneril, etc. (in Japanese, Acts 1 & 2)

7:20 pm-: Drinks reception and Q&A with Philip Breen

Venue: Nash Lecture Theatre, King's Building, Strand Campus, King’s College London

Required language level: None. The workshop is delivered in English

Suitable for Japanese-language learners at all levels as well as anyone with an interest in languages and cross-cultural communication, the programme includes:

Keynote Speaker: Phillip Breen (Theatre director and Playwright)

Phillip Breen was born in Liverpool and attended state school on Merseyside before studying Social and Political Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge. He trained under Terry Hands at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. He is an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Phillip’s work has played at: the Citizens, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Clwyd Theatr Cymru (where he was director of new writing 2006-08), at Birmingham Rep, and at Theatre Cocoon Tokyo, at the invitation of Yukio Ninagawa. He has directed off-Broadway, as well as in the West End of London.

Guest Speakers: Yoko Tokita, translator, Oliver Eccles, DTP students & PhD candidate

We warmly invite Japanese learners and all those interested in language, culture, and translation to take part in this stimulating event.

Special thanks: This event series is funded by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation