-320 F (Minus Three Twenty Fahrenheit) at Sadler’s Wells Theatre 2 – 11 July 2026
‘So much goes into answering the simple question, what is life?’ ★★★★
This is the second theatre work of Hideki Noda that I have reviewed, the first one being ‘Love in Action’ at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in October 2024. The Japanese playwright, director and actor again continues to impress with an outstanding piece of theatre script that time travels from modern times to medieval times and pays a visit to the ancient times. The plot weaves across a complexity of storylines where nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence and genetic engineering become susceptible to eventual human exploitation and manipulation by their inventors. The story was partly inspired by a real life tragic incident that occurred in Japan ten years ago (the Yamayuri-en incident). Mass killings of the disabled residents by a former employee of the care home in Sagamihara.
The play opens up with the modern times scene of a team of scientists on an archaeological site searching for bones and fossils. A debate took place between God observing the Towel of Babel and a female angel Jean (played by Suzu Hirose also playing Mephisto) introduced to be Lucifer. What is life? Who gets to choose whether to save or to terminate a life? Enter Dr Bonewave (played by Isao Hashizume also playing Faust), a pioneer of Bone Conductor Theory - a theory that is founded on the belief that it is bones and not blood that carry human memory since ancient times. Persuaded to undertake a research project funded by the Oolong-Hi pharmaceutical company and be experimented upon, the elderly scientist went through a genetic engineering mutation and transformation of chromosomes and became a young man again. Hideki Noda performed as the assistant Stalwart, initially a professor now reassigned to the research team.
Help (played by Sadawo Abe) was a research team assistant of Professor Kyuri’s (played by Eri Fukatsu also playing Queen Hamiko), a pioneering biotechnology researcher and leading Nobel Prize contender, whose goal is to find the ‘angel bone’, believed to unlock the ultimate secret of existence. We learnt that Professor Kyuri stole the Bone Conductor Theory. Time travelling by means of clever set designs (creative works of Yukio Horio) consisting of curtains sheets drawn across the stage took place at the blink of an eye. Actors appear and disappear. Modern times shift to medieval times. Enter Dr Faust, an elderly science professor tracking the location of a mysterious bone, in the search for the true nature of life. A pact is made with Mephisto, a being who is both devil and angel.
A shift to ancient times. Queen Himiko, ruler of an ancient empire and a prenatal fortune teller, is pressured by her mother Queen Hamiko (played by Shoko Takada) to have a child. Impregnated with Cleopatra’s frozen eggs, she eventually gave birth to a child, born deaf. A choreographed sign language movement sequence followed. The sound of background music was blaring through the theatre hall, then the sound stopped. The movement continued. For a few minutes, what was captured on stage was a beautiful arm movement dance that eventually closed the successful show.
With an ensemble cast of physical theatre performers speaking in Japanese, the play is primarily marketed towards native and non-native speakers of the language. In order to follow the already complicated plots and understand the narratives, it was necessary for most of us to have to swiftly read through the text translated as English subtitles on a large screen above the stage, and then catch up with the performers, a task which has proved to be quite a challenge. When the outline of a massive scientific laboratory flask made up of neon light tubes was lowered to the floor from up the ceiling, some parts of the English subtitles text were out of sight, and spectators on the front rows found themselves missing out crucial elements of the text when sentences were incomplete.
−320°F (Minus Three Twenty Fahrenheit) is a complex two hours long high-energy physical theatre and dance, science fiction and satire comedy influenced by the traditional Japanese Kabuki theatre style. Stunning costumes are designed by Kodue Hibino and magnificent choreography is by Shigehiro Ide. So much goes into answering the simple question, what is life? Who gets to choose whether to save or to terminate a life? Whether one leaves the theatre with more insight or more dilemma, Hideki Noda knows how to stir some ethical debate within oneself.
NODA MAP presents: −320°F
2 – 11 July
Sadler’s Wells, Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R 4TN
Weds – Fri 7.30pm, matinees Sat & Sun 2.30pm
From £15 | minus320.co.uk | sadlerswells.com
Writer and director Hideki Noda
Set design Yukio Horio Assistant set designer Mitsuhiro Akiyama
Lighting design Motoi Hattori & Makoto Kitazawa Costume design Kodue Hibino
Beauty direction Isao Tsuge Music Marihiko Hara
Sound design Raku Nakahara Choreography Shigehiro Ide
Projection design Taiki Ueda Stage manager Masataka Sesaki
Production manager Kumi Odaira Producer Hiroyuki Suzuki
Surtitles Jo Allan & Susan Hingley
Cast
Sadawo Abe, Suzu Hirose, Eri Fukatsu
Koji Ohkura, Shoko Takada, Yuri Kawakami, Satoshi Hashimoto, Hideki Noda, Isao Hashizume
Shinsuke Ando, Wataru Ohmura, Ayaka Kondo, Yuji Shirakura, Miki Tanimura, Haruka Tabana, Seiko Nakazawa, Tara Nakashima, Kurodo Hachijoin, Ayaka Hikima, Sotaro Fujii, Natsumi Mase, Yuta Matoba, MISAKI,
Masakazu Morita, Tomohiro Yoshida
Swing: Chiho Yokoyama, Masanori Kikuzawa
