FringeReview UK 2026

-320°F

Noda-Map

Genre: Adaptation, classical, Comedic, Contemporary, Costume, Dark Comedy, Drama, International, Mainstream Theatre, New Writing, Theatre, Translation

Venue: Sadler’s Wells

Festival: FringeReview UK

Low Down

Review

Catastrophic events haunt writer/director Hideki Noda’s works: but told so slant they’re underground. His Love in Action, seen at Sadler’s Wells in 2024, was a Japanese retelling of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov shadowed by Nagasaki – the second, arguably unnecessary atomic bomb. Noda’s latest, -320°F, is no exception. His Noda-Map company  returns to Sadler’s Wells directed by him till July 11.

-320°F takes as its point of departure the stabbings at Yamayuri-En, or Sagamihara. 19 were murdered, another 26 injured, 13 nearly fatally. Noda understandably suggests UK audiences may be unfamiliar with the worst killings in recent Japanese history. Not those of us who had friends nearby. “Real words spoken by those involved in the tragedy” are used in the production.

None of that really emerges in this tortuous, triple-level Faustian skydive into myth and redemption. Noda has too successfully absorbed witness as art and artifice. That’s perhaps as it should be. Western inflection from the Japanese Christian tradition grafts on more ancient storytelling.

After the introduction we’re catapulted from modern times through Medieval and Ancient. One scientist’s search for the scientific ultima thule or “angel bone” pushes everything from AI, nuclear weapons, genetic engineering, eugenics, and – perennially – power struggles. Though there’s a cast of 25, nine principal actors multi-role characters specifically linked to each other through three time-layers.

(Oh My) God (Isao Hashizume, also Dr Bonewave, of the Bone Conduction Theory) takes a bet from Lucifer/Mephisto/Angel of Light (Suzu Hirose) that humanity can’t improve the world (a grumpy OMG is about to destroy humanity); whilst a girl with an angel bone can only be saved by a scientist Help (Sadawo Abe). Who with the help of colleagues projecting himself back to ancient and medieval times. Initially and at the end the Narrator Misaki, conveys Help’s words in sign language. 56-year-old Help, who should have died at 15, is mildly afflicted by the “angel disease” and gratefully aids idealist Professor Kyuri (Eri Fukatsu, also idealist medieval Queen Himiko) in tracking down the angel bones. This involves seeking out a cast of mice trapped and freed in Medieval times by the very equivocal Pied Piper (a charismatic Koji Okhura, with a phone-box hotline to OMG): but these mice are rather special.

There’s darkly comical work by Isao Hashizume as Faust (he’s also on the modern team as Dr Bonewave) and his avatar Halfest (Sadawo Abe flitting out from his main role as Help) . Whereas ethical discussions happen on the contemporary scene, ones of incarceration play out in the Medieval world, and those of powers and coups in ‘Ancient Times’ which suggest a matriarchy led by Eri Fukatsu as Queen Himiko with the Mephisto shapeshifter Hirose as Quasi Himiko in a dizzying plot-twist it’s hard to keep up with. Suffice to say that people who double as the big pharma corporation Oolong-Hi funding the research the mother of the young Queen a dowager Queen Hamiko (Shoko Takada) is abetted by her younger brother (Satoshi Hashimoto): they organise coups in two time-lines. There’s a contemporary twosome act by Noda himself as Assistant Stalwart opposing a memorably baffled assistant Turncoat (Yuri Kawakami).

Shigehiro Ide’s choreography here, creating swaying bones out of bare arms, is a repeated facet of the visual spectaculars that punctuate the narrative both wittily and as sheer spectacle. Yukio Horio’s fluid design (assisted by Mitsuhiro Akiyama) involves rapid cloth screens shrouding screen-changes of a moment, though not all of these seem necessary: it’s more ritual. Taiki Ueda’s projections and backdrops – including one with an aquarium of angels by. the looks of it – are breath-taking, as you’d expect from this source. It’s aided by the dazzling costume design of Kodue Hibno, beauty direction of Isao Tsuge and the layered but consistently bright lighting of Motoi Hattori and Makoto Kitazawa. Kenjito Sano, Takahiro Soga seem responsible for the “key visual design” and Marihko Hara’s mash of spiritual minimalism, film music and traditional modes washes through at reflective moments (not many). Raku Nakahara seems to guy the flute played by Okhura’s Pied Piper, in that it’s patently orchestral every time he puts it to his lips: a sort of Brechtian wind instrument. And there’s a Brecht joke too for “you theatre goers” in referencing the Good Person of Szechuan.

There’s moments of repose and brief reflection in the relentless pace and farcical one-liners, with plenty of felicitous translations and firing wit on all surtitles (excellent by the way). Some of the moments land and there’s a genuine moment or two of pathos. These do highlight the collision of satiric critique speeded up as farce, and the frantic signposting of three complex timelines. Three isn’t too many and were clear which time-zone we’re in, even if the Medieval world has princesses going to the 299^th floor in a lift, and the 150^th with women told they’re carrying a child with an angel deformity.

Ethics, humanity, the encroachment of AI and even trans-humanism (slightly touched on though not explicitly) render this work urgent, relevant, and marrying alarmist predictions with farce is an innovative, compelling answer.

The problem arises where each of these bears complexities of its own, and the farce can become wearisome. This is where Love in Action, with an anchoring narrative, however fractured by palimpsests of nuclear war and similar dramaturgy, scored. Far more needs to land to engage us and make us invest in a least a through-line of what’s going on. I did navigate – Noda provides a brief optimistic commentary on how we might experience it all – but it’s hard work: there are too many morphings. It’s not impossible to keep count, but sympathy is exhausted. We need to settle more.  The free programme does provide a very helpful map. This allows us to place everything, though I didn’t need to consult it till later. It’s the themes that get occluded.

That said, the company and production values are almost beyond praise. Those of us accustomed to the idiom quickly adjust to pace, though here the cat’s cradles of themes and snapped threads mean we just eventually end. It’s two-hours-twenty straight through: a feature of Noda’s productions means no interval; so be warned. There’s an attempt to produce a big saccharine moment at the finale, with appropriate music. I can take that, though the words are a little thin. If you’ve not seen a Noda production, see it. If you have, see it. It’s still the most intelligent spectacular I’ve seen in recent times.

Other actors are worth recording. Shinsuke Ado, Miki Tanimura, Kurudo Hachijoin, Yuta Matoba, Wataru Ohmura, Haruka Tabana, Ayaka Hikima, Ayaka Kondo, Seiko Nakazawa, Sotaro Fujii, Mazakazu Morita, Yuji Shirakura, Tara Nakashima, Natsumi Mase, Tomohiro Yoshida, Chiho Yokoyama, Masanori Kikuzawa.

Stage Manager Matasaki Sesaki, Production Manager Kumi Odaira, Prodicer Hiroyuki Suzuki, Assistant Producers/PRs for Noda-Map: Yuki Katsu, Yasuko Aoki, Mie Taniguchi.

Associate Director Seisuke Yamaski, Key Visual Design Kenjito Sano, Takahiro Soga, Assistant Directors Atsushi Takeda, Mayu Suetomi, Hair & Make-Up Sanae Hatano, Mayumi Ito, Video Operator Kaori Yamamoto, Video & Surtitle Technican Yosuke Kamimori Company Manager Fumika Chiba. ASMs Takayuki Matsuura, Masashi Shimizu, Masako Kunishiro, Akiko Moriya, Momoko Kasahara, Moeko Kato, Takumi Tanase, Satoshi Sasaki, Kazumi Ishigaki. PR Richard Fitzmaurice Emma Berge Mobius.

Published July 4, 2026July 6, 2026 by Simon Jenner