Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Japan's Modern Theatre: A Century of Continuity and Change (review)

Japan's Modern Theatre: A Century of Continuity and Change (review) reviews JAPAN'S MODERN THEATRE: A CENTURY OF CONTINUITY AND CHANGE. By Brian Powell. London: Japan Library, 2002. xxxv + 213 pp. $75 One could hardly find a better arena than the theatre to fathom the maelstrom of change inundating Japan over the past century and more. Virtually all social, political, and philosophical twists and turns have been manifested on the Japanese stage. Now, for the first time in English, all are included in one sweeping history of modern Japanese theatre. Brian Powell's aim in this welcome endeavor is to guide us through the dizzying array of material--"to pull some of the strands together" and focus on theatre "which has encouraged new playwriting and developed new dramaturgy" (p. x). The grand theme involves the forked path of attempting to reform traditional theatre and then breaking from it. Both forks were inevitably strewn with obstacles. How to reform ingrained, centuries-old attitudes, themes, and histrionic styles? For if the old is to give way, a new reality can emerge only if a new voice is developed to express it. Yet on a path littered with vocabularies considered passé, how is one to do that? The Japanese first came up with the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asian Theatre Journal University of Hawai'I Press

Japan's Modern Theatre: A Century of Continuity and Change (review)

Download PDF
4 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/university-of-hawai-i-press/japan-s-modern-theatre-a-century-of-continuity-and-change-review-o6D1LGr5Q9

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
University of Hawai'I Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 The University of Hawai'i Press.
ISSN
1527-2109
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

reviews JAPAN'S MODERN THEATRE: A CENTURY OF CONTINUITY AND CHANGE. By Brian Powell. London: Japan Library, 2002. xxxv + 213 pp. $75 One could hardly find a better arena than the theatre to fathom the maelstrom of change inundating Japan over the past century and more. Virtually all social, political, and philosophical twists and turns have been manifested on the Japanese stage. Now, for the first time in English, all are included in one sweeping history of modern Japanese theatre. Brian Powell's aim in this welcome endeavor is to guide us through the dizzying array of material--"to pull some of the strands together" and focus on theatre "which has encouraged new playwriting and developed new dramaturgy" (p. x). The grand theme involves the forked path of attempting to reform traditional theatre and then breaking from it. Both forks were inevitably strewn with obstacles. How to reform ingrained, centuries-old attitudes, themes, and histrionic styles? For if the old is to give way, a new reality can emerge only if a new voice is developed to express it. Yet on a path littered with vocabularies considered passé, how is one to do that? The Japanese first came up with the

Journal

Asian Theatre Journal – University of Hawai'I Press

Published: Feb 5, 2004

There are no references for this article.