Man, I had the craziest hallucination last night. Thing is, about 2,000 other people had it, too, and to give due credit, it wasn’t really my hallucination. It was Yukio Ninagawa’s. The multi-Olivier-award winning director, who picked up a knighthood from Her Majesty’s Government in 2002 for his bold reinterpretations of the likes of Twelfth Night and Medea (making him, um, Sir Yukio, we guess), has brought his Shintoku-Maru to the Kennedy Center for a brief run as part of the Japan! Culture + Hyperculture festival.

Adapted from an ancient Japanese noh play, Shintoku-Maru seems to incorporate bits of most of the Greek tragedies you kind of remember, but most obviously Oedipus Rex, its mommy-lust reworked into the marginally less gross stepmommy-lust. (The eye-gouging, you will be relieved to hear, remains intact.)

Aside from these familiar elements, much of the story here would likely be impenetrable even if weren't performed entirely in Japanese without projected subtitles, which it is. Mercifully, the program contains a detailed synopsis. And if that isn't enough help, the performance is prefaced by an audio recording of Hans Gruber himself, actor Alan Rickman, reading the lengthy plot summary aloud. Bizarre but awesome, rather like the 85 minutes that follow.

Photos courtesy of the Kennedy Center

As Hans Gruber tells it, Shintoku-Maru is despondent after the death of his mom. When his elderly father decides to buy himself a new wife, he chooses Nadeshiko, a woman to which Shintoku feels a powerful attraction. Making matters worse is the fact that Shintoku's dad isn't much interested in attending to Nadeshiko's womanly needs, which only adds to the tension between Nadeshiko and Shintoku.

You can probably guess what happens next. Yes, that's correct! Shintoku does indeed go visit a magician who sells him a portal to the underworld so he can go looking for his dead mom.

And this is the point at which things start to get a little weird.

Flummoxed? Don't sweat it; the plot really is sort of secondary. The real news here are the arresting sets and costumes, and especially Nanagawa’s inimitable way of choreographing all these elements into a visual symphony of the grotesque. (There’s a display of the costumes in the lobby, so you can check ‘em out up close.)

The street scenes that bookend the show give us a sort of funeral parade of traveling players and mask-sellers and guys equipped with those metal-sander tools that seem to have no practical purpose other than to rain sparks for use in late-80s hair-band videos. It's jaw-dropping. Musically, the show is the Japanese answer to Andrew Lloyd Webber: Grating, bombastic pseudo-rock without a trace of roll. We cannot tell a lie: To this pair of Western, Webber-hating ears, it sounds awful. But did we mention that it all looks spectacular?

Tatsuya Fujiwara, who plays the title role, has gone on to become a star in Japan since making his stage debut, at the age of 15, in Nanagawa’s 1997 London production of this show. Given the language barrier and the more histrionic acting style of the Japanese stage as compared to Western theater, I can’t really comment on his performance. But I will dutifully report that Timberlake-level squeals filled the KenCen Opera House when Fujiwara took his curtain call.

Shintoku-Maru is at the Kennedy Center for three more performances only, tonight and tomorrow. Tickets are $15-$35 and can be purchased here. Get there as early as you can; the Japan! Culture + Hyperculture festival has lots of other amazing things to see.