A staged version of the 1950s Japanese cult movie, Rashomon, has music specially written and performed by Irish composer Dennis Clohessy. The film, which was a prizewinner at the 1951 Venice Film Festival, is being presented by Storytellers Theatre Company in association with Cork Opera House from 1 April to 15 May at eight venues around the country. Ivor Benjamin’s play is based on In the Grove and At the Rashomon Gate, two short stories by the twentieth-century Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

Dennis Clohessy, a music graduate of NUI Maynooth, combines electro-acoustic and acoustic sounds in his work. One of his recent productions, La Musica, won the Best Production award at the recent Dublin Fringe Festival. For the Rashomon commission he has learned to play two traditional Japanese instruments, the shakuhachi (an end-blown flute) and the koto (a thirteen-stringed zither-like instrument). The score, which is based on a pentatonic scale, incorporates improvisation as well as composed sections.

The play is set at the Rashomon Gate outside the city of Kyoto at a time when plague and famine have ravaged the city and reduced the formerly glorious gateway to a terrifying place of shadows. Liam Halligan’s challenging production features Malachy McKenna, Emma Colohan and Eoin Lynch. The set and costumes are by Japanese designer Chisato Yoshimi and the samurai fight scenes are supervised by Paul Burke, fight director and martial arts specialist.

Rashomon previews at Project arts centre, Dublin, on 1 - 2 April and then tours to Galway (6-10 April), Tralee (13-14 April), Limerick (16-17 April), Portlaoise (20-21 April), Kilkenny (23-24 April), Dublin, Project (27 April – 1 May), Dublin, Tallaght (4-8 May) and Cork (11-15 May).

Further information: Jacqui Mahon, Mahon O’Neill, 40 Arran Quay, Smithfield, Dublin 7. Tel: 01-872 9980 or 087-226 8301. Email storytel@indigo.ie