The play combines a modern psychiatric case with traditional Japanese Noh theatre and includes elements of the world's first novel, The Tale of Genji and a Noh play, Ama (also the term for Japanese pearl divers).
The show focuses around a Japanese woman named Yumi Yamanaka who is accused of murdering her lover's two children.
As she spends time with a Psychiatrist, she drifts in and out of reality and assumes characters from both The Tale of Genji and Ama while a Prosecutor and the Chief of Police work to determine her guilt.
The cast included Kathryn Hunter, Hideki Noda, Harry Gostelow, and Glyn Pritchard.
[1] The first production in the US of The Diver was performed at the University of Michigan from October 21–23 in 2010 under the direction of Rebecca Spooner.