Narrow Road to the Deep North

Synopsis

17th-century Japan

Basho, the revered 17th-century Japanese poet, stands at the edge of a river, his hands stained with the ink of unwritten haiku and the blood of unintended consequences. As he stares at a discarded infant, swaddled in rags and fate, Basho’s quest for enlightenment collides with the brutal realities of a world where power corrupts absolutely. The abandoned child becomes a prism, refracting the twisted ambitions of Shogo, a ruthless warlord who rises from the riverbank to build an empire on fear, and Georgina, a Western missionary whose zeal for salvation masks a hunger for control.

Bond’s play unfolds like a savage fairy tale, each scene a brushstroke in a landscape painted with equal parts beauty and brutality. Through spare, poetic dialogue and shocking acts of violence, he explores the cyclical nature of tyranny and the hollow promises of both religious and political ideologies. The narrow road to enlightenment proves treacherous, lined with the bodies of innocents and paved with the bricks of shattered ideals. As Basho grapples with his complicity in the unfolding tragedy, Bond forces us to confront the cost of inaction in the face of evil and the ease with which good intentions can pave the way to hell.