Rising Sun Theater's rendition of Shakespeare's MacBeth.

Dwayne Lawler wanted to be a rock musician when he was a young wastrel back in Australia. It was the 1980s, and MTV had just started filling the small screen with everything from Pop to Heavy Metal. Even his mother was a musician. So, following the natural course of things, Mr. Lawler became a stage actor. MacBeth will never be the same.

Mr. Lawler and his Nagoya-based Rising Sun Theatre are both on their way up in the world of Tokyo's expatriot production companies. Having recently landed a big-budget production of Shakespeare's tragic epic MacBeth in the New National Theatre (Sept. 22), he now has his sights set on the Budokan, the same building that hosted the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Cheap Trick.

His love of rock and heavy metal has crept into his production company, but he uses it to shock and awe his audience away from the traditional versions of Shakespeare which Mr. Lawler finds, quite simply, boring.

Alice Hackett

"Many years ago I saw the great Anthony Sher play Shakespeare," said Mr. Lawler. "In the opening speech I almost fell asleep. I wanted to do Shakespeare like a music video - I have a short attention span. It needs to be sexy and outrageous."

Pairing the music of Shakespeare in Hell, the band which put the Bard's best soliloqueys into Heavy Metal rhythms, with some very traditional Japanese symbols (a five-meter high Shinto gate or torii on the main stage and noh masks for the witches of MacBeth) gave audiences a glimpse into Mr. Lawler's unique vision. Part of that vision involved chopping out what he calls "the boring bits" of MacBeth, streamlining the whole production into two hours.

And once more following the rock music genre, Mr. Lawler has kept the performance down to one day, much like a concert.

"I'm out to shock people in a good way," he said. "I've had actors walking in here with looks on their faces like who the hell do you think you are? But I fully believe in what we're doing. It may sound strange as far as Japanese people go, but they have a great respect for Shakespeare."

Dwayne Lawler

Alice Hackett, a British-born actress who played opposite Mr. Lawler's MacBeth as Lady MacBeth, says his production style is shocking but not surprising. With so many adaptations of Shakespeare having been produced over the years, Mr. Lawler is simply adding his voice to a chorus of actors who want to modernize and contemporize the plays. But she does note Heavy Metal isn't exactly her cup of tea.

"It's not something I would personally choose to sit down and listen to," she said, "but it is an apt metaphore to what is going on in the story."

This month's production of MacBeth marked only the second time Rising Sun Theatre has performed MacBeth, but it may not be the last. Ms. Hackett says she and Mr. Lawler may take a smaller version of the play on the road to smaller venues for the next few months.