1st Edition

Japan's Modern Theatre A Century of Change and Continuity

By Brian Powell Copyright 2002
    250 Pages
    by Routledge

    250 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book endeavours to unravel the complicated skeins of Japanese theatre in the modern period and offers an appreciation of the richness of choice of presentational and representational theatre forms.
    Since the end of world War II there has been continuing but different conflict between the major theatrical genres. Kabuki continues to defend its ground successfully, but the 'new drama' (shingeki) became firmly established in its own right in the 1960s. It was a vigorous and exuberant 'underground' theatre which exploited anything and everything in the Japanese and western theatre traditions.
    Now, thirty years on, they too have been superseded. The youth theatre of the 1980s and 90s has thrown aside the concerns of the angry underground and developed a fast-moving bewilderingly kaleidoscopic drama of breath-taking energy.

    Chapter 1 Kabuki and the Challenges of a Changing Theatre World; Chapter 2 New Acting, New Production, Some New Playwriting; Chapter 3 Artists, Ideologues and Ideological Artists; Chapter 4 Diversity in Adversity; Chapter 5 Theatre Mobilised; Chapter 6 Consolidation; Chapter 7 One Tradition Promoted, One Challenged and One Created;

    Biography

    Brian Powell University of Oxford

    'While Powell approaches theater as a live event, changing and responsive to change, the wealth of detailed scholarship in Japan's Modern Theatre also makes it an excellent reference work.' - Monumenta Nipponica