Abstract
This paper aims to reassess the context of the Bungaku-za production of Hamlet directed by Tsuneari Fukuda (1955). This production is known for its huge box-office success and seen as one that shows the new possibilities to present Shakespeare plays on the post-war Japanese stages. Fukuda, influenced by the same play directed by Michael Benthall which he saw during his stay in London in 1953-4, introduced new acting style, i.e., speaking lines with high speed and no pause, without psychological depict.
It is well-known that this production was realized with the Toyo-o Iwata, one of the members of the Directorial Board of the Bungaku-za. Iwata himself had stayed in Paris twice before the WW II and was known as a theorist and translator of French Theatre and plays. Of course, he was completely unfamiliar to Shakespeare and Shakespearean production. The Bungaku-za had never produced any Shakespeare plays under Iwata’s directorship. The question arise naturally why Iwata supported Fukuda’s Hamlet.
There are two possible answers to it;
1) Iwata’s reevaluation of Shakespeare during his stay in London in 1953.
2) His reluctance to agree with naturalist tendencies of modern dramas.
In Iwata’s view, Shakespeare’s plays could be a breakthrough to the dead-end situation of modern dramas in general.
Fukuda’s Hamlet might be said to be a product of chance, i.e. that of accidental coincidence of Fukuda’s ideal and Iwata’s view of the modern theatre.
