ABOUT
Suleiman Suleiman is an actor, writer and theatre maker with a specialist interest in Japanese theatre. After graduating from Goldsmiths and the Mozarteum University of Salzburg in 2017, Suleiman has performed in critically acclaimed productions with The Royal Opera, English National Opera, Gate Theatre and The Royal Ballet. Suleiman is driven by the desire to distil beauty through the vitality of physical movement, and he has looked especially to Japanese arts - kabuki in particular - but also Japanese prints and painting, garden arts, costume, film and literature to imbue gestures both with a light touch and precision of emotional expression.
Kabukimono is an ongoing project which Suleiman conceived in 2019 as a way to instigate cross-disciplinary collaboration between emerging and established artists around kabuki. On 19th March 2022, Kabukimono III took place at Over-Seas House in St. James's and featured Suleiman's latest play, The Picture Book, inspired by the nineteenth-century master painter, Kawanabe Kyōsai. Staged as a shogakai or 'art gathering', this collaborative creation was warmly received by a sold-out audience who were also treated to shamisen music by Hibiki Ichikawa.
Kabukimono I: The Pearl Diver was an immersive, cabaret-style performance that involved an exhibition of Kabuki prints curated by Japanese Gallery Kensington, a Japanese tea ceremony performed by Kensuke Yazu, an ambient DJ mix by English Garden Lounging, and a ‘Kabuki Cocktail' ceremony organised by House of The Young Romantics. This particular cocktail was created from a bespoke cocktail recipe, gifted to Suleiman by legendary mixologist, Hidestsugu Ueno, during Suleiman's visit to the Bar High Five in Tokyo. Kabukimono II: The Flower Path featured the performance of Kabuki on the Flower Path This theatrical presentation takes the audience on a journey through four seasons and four cities - Paris, London, Tokyo and Kyoto - in the search for a more refined understanding of this magnificent artform that so fascinates the writer. On the way he encounters great artistic personalities from David Bowie to Yukio Mishima, Kansai Yamamoto and Lindsay Kemp, gaining new insight into how kabuki's exquisite beauty touched their souls and lives on in their work today.