Theatre Review: Anjin: The Shogun And The English Samurai

A lavish three-hour stage production of the relationship between William Adams and Shogun to be Tokugawa Ieyasu!

On the 12^th April 1600, some six months before the battle of Sekigahara took place on 20^th October that same year, the first Englishman to step foot in Japan, William Adams (Stephen Boxer), arrived off the coast of the Japanese province of Bungo in the Dutch ship the Liefde. It was a combination of these events which, that year, brought together and changed the fortunes of two men; William Adams, a maritime pilot from Gillingham, and the Shōgun to be Tokugawa Ieyasu (Masachika Ichimura), a descendant of the Minamoto and the wealthiest Daimyō (Lord) in Japan at

Interview: Producer Thelma Holt – Anjin: The Shogun and the English Samurai

“The influence of Japanese theatre has been and is tremendous!”  Thelma Holt

Thelma Holt CBE began a long and distinguished theatre career as an actress. She then founded the Open Space Theatre in Tottenham and has worked for the Roundhouse, the National Theatre and the Peter Hall Company. She went on to found her own theatre production company, Thelma Holt Limited. She works with the distinguished Japanese Director Yukio Ninagawa to bring Anglo-Japanese theatre to the