Half a Century of Japanese Theater is a series of translated Japanese plays that begins from the contemporary theater scene of the 1990s and moves back through the decades of modern Japanese theater to the mid-twentieth century.
The threefold aim of the Japan Playwrights Association in publishing this series is to offer performable English translations of modern Japanese plays, to encourage the production of such plays by foreign theatrical troupes and to extend possibilities for further international exchange in theater.
This volume treats six plays by major playwrights and a...
Half a Century of Japanese Theater is a series of translated Japanese plays that begins from the contemporary theater scene of the 1990s and moves ...
This fifth volume, Japanese Theater of the 1970s, treats six plays. Crime is the dominant subject. Three plays are about homicide, two are about other criminal offenses against public order and society, and one is about survival during times of war. While many of the human relations depicted in these works illustrate exploitation and brutalization, the touch of the playwrights is often surprisingly light and humorous. These dramas offer serious but enjoyable reading.
Contents: The Amida Black Chant Murder Mystery (Fujita Den); The Atami Murder Case (Tsuka Kohei); Mystery Tour...
This fifth volume, Japanese Theater of the 1970s, treats six plays. Crime is the dominant subject. Three plays are about homicide, two are about ot...
The tenth and final volume in this series treats the major works of five playwrights from the 1990s. Iwasaki Masahiro's A Country Far from Here is about an Aum Shinrikyo follower who had to come home and now has to deal with his concerned family. Nagatsuka Keishi's Men at Work tells a dark, absurd story about a group of eccentrics committed to growing the bitterest apple possible. Hatasawa Seigo's Forty Minutes from the Back focuses on two suicidal people who make emotional contact through a massage session. Tsutsumi Harue's Destination Japan is based on the true story of a Japan-resident...
The tenth and final volume in this series treats the major works of five playwrights from the 1990s. Iwasaki Masahiro's A Country Far from Here is abo...
The plays in this collection reflect, in a sense, the 'present moment' of Japan's society and theater as seen in the context of the past ten years. Many of them portray a microcosm--the small-scale world of the individual and his or her surroundings. However, they cannot be categorized as domestic drama or drama of passion. --from the Foreword by Sakate Yoji, president of the Japan Playwrights Association
The plays in this collection reflect, in a sense, the 'present moment' of Japan's society and theater as seen in the context of the past ten years. Ma...
