Susan Sontag describes how plagues has been treated metaphorically as a collective calamity, evil or scourge since ancient times, and the epidemic of AIDS showed similar aspect, as a scourge. In performances of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, angelic imagery from Raphael’s painting The Transfiguration is used deliberately. In that painting, the divine transcendence is contrasted with the fallen human state in a ‘Nietzschean redemptive vision’ (Miller). Christ (as an Angel) spreads his white wings wide and floats: the imagery that Raphael used has been inherited by Kushner’s stage performances. In some of Kushner’s sources; however, human progress was ironically interpreted as leading to devastation and agony. In the 2017 London staging at the Royal National Theatre, Marianne Elliott dramatically changed the imagery. The previous imagery of a glorious white Angel was replaced by that of a damaged grey one. In Kushner’s play, an infectious disease, like AIDS, is depicted as a symbol of the scourge for human beings. The play, however, exhibits problems with understanding the human progress as it is, due to diversity in society. In Kushner’s play, AIDS functions symbolically as a modern plague, reflecting the historical tendency to interpret disease as a moral or spiritual scourge. Yet Angels in America also exposes the limitations of such interpretations, particularly in a socially diverse and pluralistic society. This study, therefore, examines the 2017 London production, with specific attention to the relationship between Prior Walter, who experiences prophetic visions after his HIV diagnosis, and the Angel who addresses him. By analysing both Kushner’s text and Elliott’s staging and situating them within cultural perceptions of AIDS as divine retribution, the study reconsiders the dramatic representation of humanity’s struggle with the Angel. A crucial intertext informing Kushner’s angelic figure is Walter Benjamin’s posthumously published image of the Angel of History. This angel stands suspended between paradise and catastrophe, gazing upon accumulating ruins while being propelled into the future by a storm called progress. The Angel’s inability to fold its wings suggests paralysis rather than salvation, an image that resonates with Kushner’s portrayal of prophetic burden amid historical crisis. Raphael’s The Transfiguration remains another key visual influence. In many performances of Angels in America, the stagings of the angel–human encounter echo the painting’s contrast between celestial order and earthly chaos. While the painting implies human sin through scenes of suffering, modern medical knowledge complicates such theological interpretations. The depiction of a child possessed by evil spirits, for example, lacks credibility in contemporary understanding. Nevertheless, the chaotic world in the painting’s lower half finds a powerful analogue in the social and political turmoil of the 1980s AIDS crisis that forms the historical backdrop of Kushner’s play.

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This paper examines the importance of manga-anime realism in 2.5-Dimensional (2.5D) theater and proposes a clearer definition of the genre. Since the first production of The Prince of Tennis: The Musical in 2003, stage productions based on Japanese manga, anime and games – known as “2.5D” shows – have become a major phenomenon in the Japanese theater industry. Although 2.5D shows are generally regarded as faithful adaptations, this definition remains insufficient: by this logic, 2.5D would include the anime-based musical Beauty and the Beast (which is not considered 2.5D), while the game-based Touken Ranbu series might be excluded because it presents original stories. A new definition beyond simple faithfulness to source material is therefore required. This paper begins by reconsidering the question of audience reception. Since most 2.5D audiences are young female manga and anime fans who are not regular patrons of conventional theater, previous studies have examined why these productions attract them and how they interact with actors and other fans: as Sugawa Akiko argues, a distinctive culture has developed around 2.5D theater. However, attention to enthusiastic fans alone does not explain why some spectators can follow and enjoy a 2.5D performance while others cannot, even when neither group possesses prior knowledge of the original work. The crucial issue, therefore, is what produces this divide in comprehension. To address this question, this paper turns to manga-anime realism. As Azuma Sonoko observes, one characteristic of 2.5D shows is the use of colorful, often unnatural hair, which appears “natural” only within manga-anime realism. Such features – including elaborated hairstyles and distinctive figures of speech – are not universal across Japanese manga and anime. Because most 2.5D productions are adapted from works already structured by manga-anime realism, the genre cannot be defined primarily in terms of fidelity. Rather, what matters is the set of conventions these productions adopt from manga and anime for the stage. If manga-anime realism is understood as the defining feature of 2.5D, the genre’s appeal to a relatively limited range of audiences becomes more comprehensible. Within this convention, or what Azuma Hiroki calls the “environment of imagination,” seemingly unnatural elements function as codes. Just as red signifies “danger” in everyday life, red hair in this environment signals a character who is brave, strong, and straightforward. A distinct system of codes thus operates within this environment, shared by creators and audiences alike. To understand 2.5D theater, one must share the “environment of imagination” and decode these conventions on stage. 2.5D shows are defined not by fidelity to their source material but by the theatrical translation of manga-anime realism. They may omit characters, employ comparatively plain stage design, or present original narratives. What distinguishes the genre is its incorporation of manga-anime realism, a convention of post-war Japanese manga and anime, into stage practice as a principle of characterization and dramaturgy. This constitutes the poetics of 2.5-Dimensional theater.

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This paper examines the relationship between the mass spectacle The Storming of the Winter Palace in 1920, staged at the very site where the October Revolution took place, and the theatrical ideas of the director Nikolai Evreinov. After the revolution, participatory festivals were organized in Petrograd to celebrate revolutionary anniversaries, within which large-scale mass spectacles were staged. Among these spectacles, the most spectacular was The Storming of the Winter Palace, involving about 10,000 performers and reenacting the historical event of the October Revolution in front of about 100,000 audience. These spectacles served as Bolshevik propaganda; at the same time, artists were involved in staging them as part of their own artistic exploration. Evreinov was also interested in realizing his theatrical ideas through the mass spectacle that he staged. Before the revolution, Evreinov had developed a conception of theatre that conceived of life itself as theatre. He argued that humans possess a “theatrical instinct” that enables them to transform both the self and the external world in order to improve their lives, and he called this transforming process the “theatricalization of life.” This conception of theatre is reflected in the staging of The Storming of the Winter Palace. Previous studies have already pointed out the relationship between The Storming of the Winter Palace and the “theatricalization of life,” but from this perspective, the staging has not yet been analyzed in detail. Thus, this paper clarifies the theoretical relationship between them based on detailed analyses of the staging of this spectacle. In particular, it focuses on the theatrical theory of the “monodrama,” which Evreinov developed in 1909 as a practical method of stage direction. The idea of “monodrama” is a method of presenting everything on stage from the subjective perspective of a particular character’s consciousness. In monodrama, all elements on the stage are changed following the particular consciousness. Evreinov argued that audiences would be able to feel as if they became the character himself through the monodrama’s presentation. This structure of this idea underlies the staging of The Storming of The Winter Palace. Furthermore, this study reveals the possibility that the monodramatic structure of the staging of The Storming of the Winter Palace could lead audiences toward the “theatricalization of life.”

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