Performing Shakespeare in Japan

John Gillies editor Ian Carruthers editor Minami Ryuta editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:3rd Jun '10

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Performing Shakespeare in Japan cover

A collection of essays and interviews on Shakespeare performance in Japan.

Fourteen essays on topics from over one hundred years of Shakespeare performance in Japan. In addition, there are interviews with leading directors and with a leading performer. Unlike the very few existing books on Japanese Shakespeare, this 2001 book concentrates on modern and postmodern theatre.Shakespeare 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.

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

ISBN: 9780521148337

Dimensions: 244mm x 170mm x 15mm

Weight: 450g

284 pages