This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

The Star Wars franchise is about to breach the artistic final frontier with a one-off performance of a kabuki adaptation starring one of Japan’s most revered stage actors.

The classical Japanese theatre, which combines highly stylised movement and unusual vocalisation, will swap samurai swords for lightsabers and replace feudal warriors with the forces of light and darkness.

Star Wars Kabuki-Rennosuke and the Three Light Sabers, which are being staged in Tokyo, will combine plots from each of the franchise’s latest trilogy, substituting plots drawn from the days of feudal clan rivalry with drama from a galaxy far, far away.

Ichikawa Ebizo XI, Japan’s pre-eminent kabuki actor, will take to the stage as Kylo Ren, the conflicted son of Han Solo and Princess Leia, in front of 50 winners of an online lottery.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Natalie Portman in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Photograph: Keith Hamshere/AFP

Ten days after the Star Wars performance, the performing art will meet anime and manga in a kabuki adaptation of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind by the renowned Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki.

While the location of the Star Wars performance has been kept secret, the Japan office of Disney, which is producing the show, said fans would be able to watch via a live stream.

Thursday’s performance, which will take place weeks before the nine-part Star Wars saga draws to a close with the release of The Rise of Skywalker, is the latest attempt by kabuki to shake off its stuffy image and open it up to a wider audience.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens. Photograph: Allstar/DISNEY/LUCASFILM

Traditionalists, though, are unlikely to object to the Star Wars theme, given the films’ popularity in Japan and the Japanese themes and that have helped shape the franchise throughout its 42-year-history.

George Lucas was influenced by the venerated Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and his first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, was loosely based on Kurosawa’s 1958 film The Hidden Fortress.

In their sense of honour and dedication to their cause, the Jedi, substituting light sabers for katana swords, have been compared to the samurai, right down to flowing robes that would not have looked out of place on the feudal warriors. There are clear similarities, too, between Darth Vader’s helmet and the headgear worn by samurai when they went into battle.

JJ Abrams, who has directed Star Wars films since 2013, has said Ren’s fractured facemask was inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi, in which cracks in ceramic ware are repaired with silver or gold and highlighted rather than covered over.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Video comparing Star Wars with the Hidden Fortress

Kabuki stories, performed by all-male actors dressed in elaborate costumes and colourful makeup “masks”, deal with samurai rivalry, love, suicide and more pedestrian accounts of city life.

Ichikawa’s good looks and acting style have helped revive interest in the art form, especially among younger people.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kylo Ren’s cracked helmet. Photograph: Lucasfilm Ltd./©2017 Lucasfilm Ltd

He was made a member of L’Ordre de Arts et des Lettres in 2007 after wowing audiences in Europe, Australia and the US. Public shock over his involvement in a drunken brawl in 2010 gave way to sympathy after his wife, the popular TV personality Mao Kobayashi, died from breast cancer in 2017.

Ichikawa, a Star Wars devotee who has been closely involved in scripting and choreographing the adaptation, promised the this week’s performance would bridge the artistic divide.

“[It] will depict the sagas of love and loss for the Skywalker family that stretch back more than 40 years”,” he said in a statement when the project was revealed earlier this month. “It will be a show that both Star Wars fans and kabuki fans will enjoy.”