Although the realistic style is seemingly resurgent in today's Japanese theatre, especially the so-called “quiet theatre” by young playwrights, realism in Japan has been understood to be almost synonymous with Socialist Realism. This may be a reason, if not the reason, why any discussion on realism in theatre inevitably becomes confused.

This symposium was planned to provide some basic understandings of realism in Japanese theatre. But through discussions some new understandings emerged, too. It was divided into four parts: (1) the historical investigation of the concept of realism in theatre, (2) the reexamination of Socialist Realism, (3) realism in modern Japanese theatre before 1960s and (4) after.

In this article four essential characteristics of the drama of realism are examined; Büchner and Brecht are taken as examples. These four are: (1) that reality is vividly drawn, (2) that the problems and contradictions in the society are emphasized, (3) that familiar events in everyday life are presented by people familiar to us, and (4) that the audience really experiences what happens in the drama and is encouraged to get engaged in social and political actions.

This article tries to make clear the implicit relationship between Ibsen and Pirandello, that is to say, the fact that the aspect of Pirandellian metatheatre was foreseen in realism of Ibsen. However, this aspect is examined through the analyses of Un marito (1903) by Italo Svevo and Le Cocu magnifique (1920) by Fernand Crommelynch, for these two plays seem to have been, without the authors' awareness, linking Ibsen's realism with Pirandello's self-conscious playfulness, which leads to his metatheatrical dramaturgy.

Sekkyo is a popular narrative in the 17th century, performed by the narrators who belonged to the lowest class in the society. In this article the author examines the special narrative phrase in Sekkyo-shohon, that is, “...te ni.” Furthermore the author suggests that this phrase has something to do with a familiar phrase in Korean narrative, which has been used since the 15th century.

The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy which is skeptical about the gender-role at the time. This article presents an argument from this point of view and so begins with examination of the gender-role expressed in the play. It should be viewed in the cultural context and, at the same time, in the social environment where the playhouse was located at the time.

In this article the author examines Le Bourgois gentilhomme from the viewpoints of the cultural and intellectual context of the time; this is similar to the attitude of New Historicism. The particular aspects to be examined are “impersonation” and “exclusion”, which were the representative behaviors of the intellectuals in the 17th century France, who had experienced the decline of the traditional world view of the Middle Ages. In this respect, theatre was the most advanced medium to establish the modern world view.

Max Reinhardt is usually related to expressionistic theatre and understood to have advocated an exaggerated acting style. This is a sort of misunderstanding, which was caused perhaps by the fact that he left no systematic method of actor training, such as that of Stanislavski. Through examining Reinhardt's earlier career the present author finds that his view of acting was quite innovative and that he introduced an acting style which would not make the character too clear-cut.