Noda Map's -320°F Will Come to Sadler's Wells in July

−320°F, written and directed by Hideki Noda OBE, will come to Sadler’s Wells, 2 – 11 July. In a science-fiction story that asks ‘what is life’ when science and desire for betterment encroaches on God’s creation, the latest show from NODA MAP (Love in Action, 2024; A Night at the Kabuki, 2022) is spectacle combining drama, music and dance performed by a 25-strong ensemble. 

At an excavation led by a biotechnology professor, her assistant – who has defied a 15-year life expectancy thanks to modern medicine and wants to repay the favour – searches for the mythical "Angel’s Bone", which their pharmaceutical corporate sponsor thinks it might be the key to youth and longevity. But when their focus turns to the assistant, they that the vibrating bone in his right arm might be the key to tracing the Angel’s Bone, and it opens a door to his genetic memory, taking them back and forth through time, from the modern world, to Middle Ages and an ancient era. −320° is a battle of ideas following the Faustian theme of whether desire for more is a creative or destructive force, and about whether science’s goals to enhance humanity will end up damning it. 

From Japanese company NODA MAP, renowned for their high-quality, large-cast spectacles, −320° is a Faustian descent through myth, memory and other bad ideas. The new show is once again written by, directed by and featuring multi-award-winning Japanese artist Hideki Noda OBE. The show follows his reimagining The Brothers Karamazov in 2024 – resetting the Russian epic against the backdrop of Nagasaki in WWII – and staging Romeo and Juliet with Queen songs. −320° opened Tokyo on 10th April and is coming to Sadler’s Wells in July for the company’s longest run to date. It has further performances in Kitakyushu and Osaka. 

Hideki Noda said, “I feel we are in a world where we’re re-confronted by some things human beings ought to have solved before. We have more of simplistic technologies. I think the Professor represents a kind of dilemma science technology has. Like in the field of medicine, there are things that could be improved to save people, but at the same time, there are also things we shouldn’t touch. To live with the dilemma of science technology is a theme of this play.”

Hideki Noda OBE is a multi-award-winning Japanese playwright, theatre director, and actor. With his company Yume no Yuminsha, he won Japan's most prestigious theatre accolade, the Kishida Drama Award, and became a symbol of Japan's vibrant youth theatre and small-scale theatre movements in the 70s and 80s. The company set records by drawing 26,000 people to a one-day event where he staged his version of The Ring of the Nibelungs—presented as a Stonehenge trilogy—at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo. Noda has worked extensively in the UK: his Red Demon was shown at the Young Vic in 2003, and The Diver was performed at the Soho Theatre in 2008. The first show he wrote in English was The Bee, based on the short story Mushiriai(Plucking At Each Other) by Yasutaka Tsutsui, which originated from a workshop with London actors in 2006. It premiered at the Soho Theatre and received a five-star review in Time Out, which called it a “highly unusual theatrical gem.” The Bee was later performed in Tokyo in both English and Japanese and was subsequently brought to New York. His works have been staged in 38 cities across 13 countries, including Japan. In January 2023, he became the first Japanese recipient of the ISPA 2023 Distinguished Artist Award, recognising his outstanding achievements in the international performing arts community. In 2008, he was appointed artistic director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre. He received the OBE in 2009, the Asahi Prize in 2009, and the Purple Ribbon Medal of Honor in 2011. He joined the Japan Art Academy in March 2025 and received the Order of Cultural Merit that same year.