-320°F Will Debut at Sadler's Wells This Summer

Following sell-out productions of Love in Action (2024) and A Night at the Kabuki (2022) at Sadler's Wells, Japanese theatre company NODA MAP will be returning to the venue with -320°F. Renowned for their high-quality, large-cast spectacles that combine music, drama and dance, NODA MAP once again present a new work written and directed by multi-award-winning Japanese artist Hideki Noda OBE. Performances run 2 – 11 July.

After 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, Noda now presents a new science fiction story, spanning different eras, set at an excavation site. The show will premiere in Tokyo in April before coming to Sadler's Wells in July for the company's longest run to date, and has further performances in Kitakyushu and Osaka.

Producer, Hiroyuki Suzuki said, “In Hideki Noda's eyes, he fathoms that technology rather than ideology or philosophy plays a great part in evolution/transformation in modern days. Humans are getting driven away into a position where we have no control over technologies like nuclear or AI.His new play is a story about ‘Life' that involves the technology called ‘Reproductive Medicine.' People are now trying to gain more control over the technologies derived from human desires like anti-aging or eugenics. Through the voices and physical expressions of wonderful Japanese actors intertwined with the powers of stage design, lights, costumes and music, we would like to propose this question to you; What is life?”

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. The company performed across Japan and at the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival and New York International Art Festival before disbanding in 1992. The following year, after studying in the UK, he founded NODA MAP. 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. Noda frequently collaborates with actress Kathryn Hunter and has worked with many international playwrights and actors. His works have been staged in 38 cities across 13 countries, including Japan. In 2022, he brought A Night at the Kabuki to London and Taipei, and in 2024, Love in Action to London, earning high praise. In January 2023, he became the first Japanese recipient of the ISPA 2023 Distinguished Artist Award, recognizing 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 (Honorary Order of the British Empire) 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.