Nobuko Albery
Lady Albery | |
|---|---|
| Born | Nobuko Uenishi 1940 (age 84–85) |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Spouses | |
Nobuko, Lady Albery (née Uenishi; born 1940) is a Japanese author, translator and theatrical producer based in Monte Carlo.[1] She is the widow of English theatrical impresario, Sir Donald Albery.
Early life and family
Lady Albery was born Nobuko Uenishi in Kobe, Japan, the daughter of the Japanese businessman Keiji Uenishi and his wife, Sodako, a haiku poet. During the Second World War, she was evacuated and eduated at an American missionary school.[1]
She attended Waseda University and later New York University from 1961 to 1963 where she received her Masters in drama.
International flavour
Through her theatre work she helped to bring several adaptations of Western plays to Japan, beginning in 1963 with Gone with the Wind. Other plays include: Fiddler on the Roof (1964), Les Misérables (1987), Oscar (1994), as well translator into Japanese of Oliver! (1968) and Miss Saigon (1992).
Despite being a native of Japan, she has lived abroad most of her life and considers herself an outsider to Japan. This enabled her to bring a different perspective to theatre in Japan by challenging how plays are produced there and what Japanese audiences will respond to.
Personal life
Lady Albery's first husband was the English writer and Orientalist Ivan Morris;[2] and, during their marriage, her work was released under her legal name at the time, Nobuko Morris. She later married Sir Donald Albery, being styled Lady Albery thereafter, though she publishes under the name Nobuko Albery.[1]
Albery was a friend of the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima.[3]
Bibliography
- Samurai (1969 - under the name Nobuko Morris, co-authored with Ivan Morris and Paul Varley)
- Balloon Top (1978)
- The House of Kanze (1985)
- Absurd Courage (1987)
- Japanese Pride and Prejudice (2002)
References
- ^ a b c Church, Michael (28 September 1994). "Just a Girl Who Can't Say Noh". The Times. p. 32.
- ^ Cortazzi, Hugh (13 May 2013). Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume 4. Routledge. ISBN 978-1136641404.
- ^ Albery, Nobuko (1 August 1985). "Nobuko Albery salutes the ghost of Mishima, novelist and suicide". London Review of Books. Vol. 07, no. 14. ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 2025-07-08.