Performing Shakespeare in Japan
Performing Shakespeare in Japan
Ian Carruthers, La Trobe University, Victoria
John Gillies, University of Essex
£41.00
GBPShakespeare has an astonishingly rich and varied performance tradition in Japan, stretching from the Westernizing and modernizing ferment of the nineteenth-century Meiji era to the postmodern performance culture. How has the tradition evolved? Where is it going? How is it to be accounted for in theatrical and cultural terms? What does it mean to perform Shakespeare in Japan? Such questions are raised in this 2001 book's introduction and pursued in fourteen essays on key aspects, moments and personalities in the performance tradition. These are followed by provocative interviews with four leading directors (Deguchi Norio, Ninagawa Yukio, Suzuki Tadashi and Noda Hideki) and with one leading performer (Hira Mikijiro). Unlike the very few existing books on Japanese Shakespeare, this book concentrates on modern and postmodern theatre, from c.1970, and contains contributions from both Japanese and Western scholars and theatre practitioners.
- Focuses on the modern performance of the Shakespeare plays in Japan
- The interviews afford a rare and deep insight into five of Japan's top directors and performers
- Contains contributions from both Japanese and Western scholars and theatre practitioners
Reviews & endorsements
Review of the hardback: 'This excellent book … makes you want to board the next flight to Tokyo and take up the challenge.' The Times Literary Supplement
Product details
August 2010Paperback
9780521148337
284 pages
244 × 170 × 15 mm
0.45kg
Available
Table of Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of contributions
- Preface Takahashi Yasunari
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction Minami Ryuta, Ian Carruthers and John Gillies
- Part I. Early Modern and Traditional Theatre Productions:
- 1. What do we mean by 'Japanese' Shakespeare? Anzai Tetsuo
- 2. Japan as 'half-civilized': and early Japanese adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Japan's construction of its national image in the late nineteenth century Yoshihara Yukari
- 3. Shakespeare in Kabuki James R. Brandon
- 4. Osanai Kaoru's version of Romeo and Juliet, 1904 Matsumoto Shinko
- 5. Some Noh adaptations of Shakespeare in English and Japanese Ueda Munakata Kuniyoshi
- 6. The Braggart Samurai: a Kyogen adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor Michael Shapiro
- Part II. Modern Productions (Post World War II):
- 7. Weaving the spider's web: interpretation of character in Kurosawa Akira's Throne of Blood (Kumonosu-jo) Paula von Loewenfeldt
- 8. Innovation and continuity: two decades of Deguchi Norio's Shakespeare Theatre Company Suematsu Michiko
- 9. Tragedy with laughter: Suzuki Tadashi's The Tale of Lear Takahashi Yasunari
- 10. The Chronicle of Macbeth: Suzuki method acting in Australia, 1992 Ian Curruthers
- 11. The rose and the bamboo: Noda Hideki's Sandaime Richâdo Suzuki Masae
- 12. Shakespeare reinvented on the contemporary Japanese stage Minami Ryuta
- 13. Juliet's girlfriends: the Takarazuka Revue Company and the Shôjo culture Ohtani Tomoko
- 14. Directing 'Japanese Shakespeare' locally and universally: an interview with Gerald Murphy Ted Motohashi
- Part III. Interviews with Directors and Actors:
- 15. Interview with Deguchi Norio
- 16. Interview with Suzuki Tadashi
- 17. Interview with Ninagawa Yukio
- 18. Interview with Noda Hideki
- 19. Interview with Hira Mikijirô
- Afterword: Shakespeare removed: some reflections on the localization of Shakespeare in Japan John Gillies
- Index.
