Japanese Theater
...ting the notion that ¡§reality is nothing more than arbitrary social construction¡¨ . The theme of dreams resonates throughout the Shogekijo works, as it was a dream for the individual and society to be liberated from conformity and the cultural constructions of power elites. The angura theatre was closely linked to the politics of the left counter culture. These plays aim to change the perception of the structured world and achieve self-transcendence through a particular mode of training, resolving the strong sense of cultural dislocation and identity crisis experienced in the society. In this sense, the angura theatre of the 1960s is ¡§dark and serious¡¨ as it is a radical movement that reacted against the mainstream culture, exploring into a deeper sense of individual being. We should, however remain critical of the theories of subjectivity and selfhood embodied in the Shogekijo movement as it may sometimes prevail as a mere form of self-essentialism. As Kawamura noted in an interview : original angura theatre became static in the 70s and the 80s; the practitioners such as Suzuki and Kara established their esthetics and therefore were comfortable to enclose themselves within what they had established. Gradually, they stopped responding to the immediate social and cultural environment. These groups thus indulged in the self-satisfying sense of ¡¥spiritualism¡¦ resembling that of a cult as each organization always revolved around a leading male artist. This then seems contradictory; experimental or avant-garde companies organized in this seem to be politically on the right rather than on the left. These apparent contradictions allowed the mainstream cultural institution to appropriate the 1960s angura theatre. It has been argued that by the 1970s, the radical intellectuals ¡§withdrew into their Bourgeois daily lives and oppositional movements in Japan were effaced and dismantled in the face of economic expansion, consumerism and the eventual emergence of the bubble economy.¡¨ Senda Akihiko, an important critique of Japanese theatre observed that ¡§ the relentless logic of capitalism has unified us all¡¨ . The development of angura in the 1980s has become one that enacts the notion of the ¡§endless present¡¨ in Japanese society, notably of Noda Hideki¡¦s Yume no Yuminsha and Hirada Oriza¡¦s ¡¥quiet theatre¡¦. The term ¡§endless present¡¨ refers to the normalization of dominant politics where by aesthetic values have been removed from a historical and social political context. It suggests Japanese people¡¦s containment with the repetitious limits and norms of Japanese culture, and an obsession with bubble economy consumerism. Noda Hideki¡¦s Yume no Yuminsha Company has been the most popular angura style theatre in Japan. Noda¡¦s performances are spectacular to watch, full of imaginative stage settings and energetic, almost frantic acting. The acting style of Hideki has an outstanding feature in that he never stands still, he is constantly jumping, rolling, employing odd hand gestures that his text seem to never catch up with his action. The plots of his plays are most complex, multi-layered with different time fragments often running with multiple themes. His theatre has thus been described as a theatre of speed where a world of ludic fantasy is created. In attending his theatre, the realistic world of everyday life totters and the audience escapes into a hyper-reality of dreams. Stylistically, the theatre of Yume no Yuminsha resembles the fractured and dram-like elements of angura theatre. The ludic cartoon world of Noda¡¦s theatre also resonates of angura¡¦s attempts in abandoning the traditions and assumptions of the well-made play, exposing theatre¡¦s unreality as its most effective characteristic. This theatre, however, is essentially different to the 1960s angura in that Noda has removed the angura style from the historical context, as he seems to have little interest in making statements with his theatre. Although it is not necessary for theatres to invoke political intentions in order to attain power; the significance and values of a particular theatre would only prevail through radical examination of its relationship to the society. Despite the fact that the ludic spirit, and frantic aesthetic of Noda¡¦s fantasy world indeed depicts the fluid and transient nature of Japan¡¦s bubble capitalism. It has become apparent that his intensely commercialized theatre has surrendered under the dominance of late capitalism in Japan; another culture sphere where the processes of capitalism has been normalized. In this aspect, Noda¡¦s theatre has drifted away from the aesthetics of the original angura theatre movement in the 1960s. Hirata Oriza¡¦s hyper-naturalistic ¡¥quiet theatre¡¦ (shizukana engeki) differs entirely in style to Noda¡¦s dreamscapes, yet both present the notion of the ¡§endless present¡¨. Quiet theatre depicts the seemless everyday of Japanese lives. These plays never have a formal beginning and ending, as the plays seem to have a life of its own that goes on in perpetuity. All the actors are caught up in the most neutralized situations of Japanese everyday, playing out the minute details of the ¡§non-confrontational, repetitious and typically polite Japanese attitudes¡¨ . It is a social place where everyone pretends to be happy, enacting the set of patterns required in Japanese social conversations. As Miyoshi Masao has described, this is a place where there are no explicit rules of conduct but Japanese people never the less understand explicitly what to do and how to behave. Although it has been argued by Hasabe Hiroshi that the quiet theatre reflects a yearning for nature in the face of social breakdown, it is hardly convincing as the characters seem to be warmly embraced in the commonplace and the repetitious social interactions. This theatre demonstrates to us a form of ¡¥national poetics¡¦ that erases the possibilities of difference, where people is constantly reminded and bounded by a set of enduring cultural values. The popularity of Hirata¡¦s quiet theatre hence relies on the audience¡¦s nostalgic recognition with the theatre environment, as it presents a ceaseless and un-challenged social norm where people may easily relate. Such theatre entraps in the capitalist expansion, avoiding any possibilities of critical and radical elements in its presentation, naturalizing all social conventions. These two examples of 1980¡¦s popular theatre demonstrates how theatre ¡§enacts containment¡¨ with the society. Although both of these theatres display some traits of its angura lineage, as in performance structure and dramaturgy, the aesthetics and concept behind theatre making has fractured greatly between the two eras of angura theatre. The 1980¡¦s generation has ceased to utilize theatre as a means to make powerful statements; rather it has refigured angura theatre as mass entertainment that appeals to the mainstream society. Although these theatres do not become invalid due to their non-radical functions, it however, appears to be ¡§light and fluffy¡¨ as they have ceased to be critical in promoting the idea of Japan as an endless present. Thus, the ¡¥bubble¡¦ theatre of the 1980s, I would argue, has evolved into a genre that is essentially different to the angura theatre of the 1960s in concept and aesthetic values. However, there is another strand of the angura development that has an increasing significance in contemporary Japanese theatre in the 1980s and 1990s, theatre genres that oppose the social conventions of Japanese society, akin more to the radical angura theatre of the 1960s. The representational theatres of this strand include Daisan Erotica, Gekidan Kaitaisha and Dumb Type. Although Daisan Erotica was founded by Kawamaru Takeshi in the early 1980s, it only became outright critical of the Japanese social conditions in the 1990s when the social identity was again facing a crisis as the bubble economy bursts in Japan. Kawamura often depicts a sense of dystopia through his scientific, cynical portrayals of the Japanese population. For Kawamura, theatre must come to terms with the ¡¥actual¡¦, yet hidden, power relationships of the society ¡V making dystopia visible, as he describes Japan as a ¡§fake culture and surface euphoria layered over deep-seated problems.¡¨ Thus Daisan Erotica critically investigates social relationships, proposing Japan as ¡§dystopic rather than utopian, fractured rather than cohesive, violent and coercive rather than safe and free.¡¨ . Through his plays, Kawamura questions the very constructions of society, confines that are implemented on us through language, institution and media, especially of Japan¡¦s acute concep...