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Akira Takayama’s McDonald’s Radio University

Brechtian Listening in McDonald’s and Postvisual Dramaturgy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2025

Kyoko Iwaki
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Abstract

Akira Takayama’s McDonald’s Radio University (2017) transforms McDonald’s fast-food restaurants into auditory and affective performance spaces for collective reflection and sociopolitical engagement. Migrant “professors,” seated inside, deliver lectures via portable radios. Drawing from Brechtian radio theatre, Takayama foregrounds the ethics of listening, urging audiences to confront vulnerability and marginalization within noisy, unpredictable public spaces devoid of theatre’s protective distance.

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Article
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TDR , Volume 69 , Issue 4 , December 2025 , pp. 150 - 160
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of New York University Tisch School of the Arts

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References

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TDReadings

Chaudhuri, Una. 2023. “Dis-Anthropocentric Performance: The Climate Lens Playbook.” TDR 67, 1 (T257):41–43. doi.org/10.1017/S1054204322000740CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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