THEATRE STUDIES Journal of Japanese society for Theatre Research
Online ISSN : 2189-7816
Print ISSN : 1348-2815
ISSN-L : 1348-2815
Volume 54
Displaying 1-5 of 5 articles from this issue
Article
  • Yukie MASE
    2012 Volume 54 Pages 1-21
    Published: 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: January 06, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    Shuji Terayama's radio play, titled Taireifuku (Uniform and Court Dress), is obviously inspired by Giraudoux's dramatic play called Intermezzo. Both these plays are stories about love triangles—the heroine, the heroine's fiancé, and a mysterious figure. However, one can see some differences in the characteristics of the heroines. Giraudoux's heroine is energetic and independent while Teramaya's is vulnerable and dependent. Nevertheless, those who know Giraudoux's plays cannot ignore the similarities between these two texts. In Terayama's play, the man in the costume is loved by the girl, and this is an obvious variation of the ghost that Isabelle, the heroine of Giraudoux's play, loves. Terayama successfully emphasizes the similarities between the two mysterious figures by effectively maximizing the uniqueness of the media of radio, which appeals to the imagination of the listeners. By analyzing Terayama's thoughts on the media of radio, one thing becomes quite clear—both Giraudoux and Terayama had a keen interest in “combining two separate themes into one.” Terayama worked on interlacing sex and hell. These facts make us believe that Terayama consciously read Giraudoux's works, perhaps for quite a long time.

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  • Kôhei KIKUCHI
    2012 Volume 54 Pages 23-42
    Published: 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: January 06, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    Tragedy a la mode (1761) is the first marionette play written by Samuel Foote. This short play is written in the “play-within-a-play” style. Moreover, Fustian, a character in the play (played by Foote himself), says to theatre critics that he demonstrates a new “Tragedy a la mode” by using one actor and three life-size pasteboard marionettes. This kind of coacting is an epoch-making experiment; however, previous studies neither paid any attention to Tragedy nor considered these marionettes.

    In this paper, I study the significance of these marionettes in eighteenth-century London and aim to highlight the new aspects in this play. Therefore, I would first like to examine the manner in which life-size pasteboard marionettes were positioned in eighteenth-century London, by comparing the fashionable marionette shows in vogue at the time and exploring the uniqueness of Foote's marionettes. Secondly, with the help of these figures, drawing from the acting style of David Garrick supported by “Physiognomy,” I want to clarify that Tragedy presents a fundamental question about “acting.” The purpose of this paper is to study why life-size pasteboard marionettes are adopted, and to reevaluate this play as the one that uses the “play-within-a-play” style skillfully.

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