Review: End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland, Barbican

If sex is a dessert (nice when you have it, fine when you don’t), then Philippe Decouflé’s stage adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s novel is the fancy cocktail that arrives with its own explanation – the one you saw on a TikTok that drew you to the restaurant in the first place. Elaborate, beautiful yet slightly intimidating, it’s the drink you snap a pic of before slurping down five more…cue the existential crisis on the tube home (vodka will do that to you). And Decouflé certainly doesn’t skimp on ingredients. There’s brilliant acting, breathtaking choreography, beautiful live music and sumptuous stage and sound design. The result is a sensory spectacle that feels perfectly Murakami: dreamlike, dazzling and totally different to anything you’ve seen before.

Decouflé plunges us straight into its mythical world within the first few seconds of the production. A troupe of ballet dancers prance across the stage as unicorns in shimmering gold costumes, pointe shoes and stilted forelimbs, a beautiful pink sky behind them. It is an immediate statement of intent, brought to life by designer Yoshihiko Tanaka. K. Ishihara’s set design, combined with the enchanting lighting of Yukiko Yoshimoto, is so all-encompassing that the fourth wall barely seems to exist; it feels less like I am watching the performance but rather actually standing inside it. The vivid colours, rapid scene transitions and constantly transforming set keeps me hooked, creating a kind of constant novelty and stimulation that feels suited to 2026 attention spans. Visually, I can’t help but feel it is, in the best way, a theatrical, cultured adult version of those sensory dancing fruits that have babies hypnotised.

Decouflé’s dancers are also responsible for this, seamlessly switching from otherworldly characters to ordinary Tokyo residents in the most mesmerising way. Equally instrumental in transporting us into Murakami and Decouflé’s world is Mayu Gonto, the live musician and arguably one of End of the World… most impressive talents. From a gorgeous piano rendition of As Time Goes By to the ethereal xylophone notes that create the sound of a knock on a unicorn’s skull (what a sentence!), their range is outstanding. Every note they play has meaning, perfectly complementing the spectacular choreography and Ako Takahashi’s intoxicatingly surreal script. The cast truly do lift the text off the page. Tatsuya Fujiwara is an excellent Watashi. Despite the character feeling like many underdog heroes we’ve seen before, Fujiwara manages to make him someone we root for, especially when it comes to his chemistry with the other performers on stage. The interactions between him and Misato Morita, who impressively multi-roled between the Librarian and She, are charmingly everyday, rooting the play in something relatable. With the Casablanca parallels, it feels like, perhaps, it’s an existential yet tender love story. Miu Tomita as the Woman in Pink is another stand-out: I could happily watch another entire play just through her eyes.

My one major reservation is that there is too much dialogue. With so much already happening visually and aurally, a lot of the exposition feels unnecessary, particularly in the lengthy third act, where multiple false endings begin to feel jarring. Then again, the original book is over 400 pages long. Perhaps the actual existential crisis is that I now have to go back to my ordinary life, where unicorn heads are something I can’t say I’ve encountered and my shadow is still attached. Decouflé’s adaptation of Murakami’s 1985 timeless novel is truly not to be missed.

Based on the novel by Haruki Murakami
Directed and Choreographed by: Philippe Decouflé
Adapted for the Stage by: Ako Takahashi
Music: Umitaro Abe
Set Designer: K Ishihara
Lighting Designer: Yukiko Yoshimoto
Sound Designer: Masahiro Inoue
Video Designer: Taiki Ueda
Costume Designer: Ayako Maeda
Unicorn Design: Yoshihiko Tanaka
Hair & Make-Up Design: Naoki Kamada
Associate Director: Maiko Tanaka
Associate Choreographer: Ryu Suzuki
Assistant Director: Noriko Kawai
Associate Set Designer: Sayako Makino
Fight Choreographer: Naoki Kurihara
Stage Manager: Yasuko Tokunaga
Production Manager: Yasumasa Hirai
Production Supervisor: Yuichiro Kanai

End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland plays at The Barbican until Sunday 11 October