Based on Makato Shinkai’s anime film (later a manga comic and a novel), this is a heady mixture of social drama and poetic fantasy with a little bit of puppetry and dance thrown in.
Co-adapted (with Susan Momoko Hingley, who also performs), directed and choreographed by Alexandra Rutter.
It follows the fortunes of a 15-year-old schoolboy Takao (Hiroki Berrecloth) who wants to be a shoemaker, and a teacher Yukari (Aki Nakagawa) whose fates intertwine during the rainy season in Tokyo.
Both spend the mornings skyving for different reasons – he designs shoes, she drinks beer and eats chocolate – and they forge an elusive, platonic relationship.
A kind of consummation is achieved in a scene of subtle eroticism when he measures her foot for a pair of shoes.
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But the transition from screen to stage isn’t as smooth as it should be; the short scenes of cryptic exchanges and gnomic language, interspersed with cliched movement and a fairly naff bird puppet don’t quite gel in spite of largely excellent performances.
While some of the more delicate cultural references are lost in translation, it remains intriguing though it would have benefited from a less cluttered production.
The Garden of Words, Park Theatre until September 9, Tickets: 020 7870 6876
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