Spanish playwright Alfonso Sastre (1926 -) started his career in 1945 and wrote plays focusing on social problems such as workers' resistance, the patriarchal society, and the suppression of speech and emotions. However, Ana Kleiber, written in 1995, is different from his other works; its theme is tragic love, and in the play, the author attempts various experiments which were not common at the time in Spanish theatre.

This paper analyzes the experimental elements of Ana Kleiber and studies their dramatic effects. Firstly, the realistic opening scene is examined to clarify the author's intention behind the simultaneous conversations carried out between three groups on stage.

Secondly, the temporal-spatial leaps of the characters' narrations are studied, demonstrating that Sastre applied the concept of Gerard Genette's narratology. Another point of discussion is the power balance among the three characters' narrations.

Finally, the embedded structure of this play is analyzed. Because a love story is nested within the narration of a young German, who has a conversation with Sastre the playwright, this play can be defined as a metatheatre. Furthermore, the metatheatrical elements are studied, paying attention to the main character, an actress who plays herself and her colleague within the play, as well as the dramatic structure in which the character Sastre plans to write a play called Ana Kleiber based on the story narrated by the young German.

It was discovered that Zeami created a Noh dance complete with suso-guse and waka-uke in his Noh play Higaki, to make the Shite (the main protagonist, in this case a deceased old woman recalling her life) who was a Shirabyōshi perform the dance she recalls performing while she was still alive. Later Zeami-related Noh plays where ‘dancing female ghosts’ appear, such as Eguchi, Izutsu, Obasute, and Uneme, are also replete with waka-uke. However, there is no waka-uke in the Noh play Hotokenohara, which has the Shite appear as a Buddha, and where Zeami has the protagonist dance to the rhythm of Ryochūkan—the “Dance of a Buddha” —which is loosely based on a Maiden of Heaven dance piece similar to a piece from the Goddess-themed Noh play Hakozaki. Based on this, it was discovered that Hotokenohara was written before his creation of waka-uke. This conclusion is consistent with the conclusion the paper published in 2007 concerning Hotokenohara, in which the term utamai is used, and was written before the second half of the year Ōei 26 (1419).

This paper analyzes how the representations of female sexuality which appear in the adaptation of Hamlet translated and adapted by Kayo Yamagishi and Shunsho Dohi, and staged by Otojiro Kawakami in 1903, reflected and deviated from the ideal image of women in modern Japan. During the Meiji era, Japanese society attempted to control women's sexuality. The female characters based on Ophelia and Gertrude reflect this controlled sexuality by internalizing chastity and obedience, while the new character, Yukino, embodies a comparatively liberated ‘new woman’.

Kayo Yamagishi, the main adapter, tried to portray female characters as the ideal women of virtue. In spite of this attempt at the text level, in the performance itself the performers' physicality meant that they could not fulfill the roles as expected from the text. This resulted in the on-stage characters appearing liberated from the controlled sexuality expected by society at the time.

This study shows the importance of this adaptation of Hamlet as one of the receptions of European plays in the Meiji era by analyzing the variety of female representations depicted in this adaptation and its production. Moreover, the deviations from this expected image on the stage confirmed for both reviewers and performers the inseparability of performers' bodies and their characters.

In 2018, the stage productions of Kanata and Slāv, directed by the prominent Canadian theatre director Robert Lepage (1957-), were forced to cancel due to controversy over casting. The former story depicts the relation between white settlers and First Nations people, and the latter features African-American slaves and their songs. Criticism arose because the Kanata and Slāv casts predominantly consisted of nonindigenous and nonblack actors playing the roles of Indigenous and African Americans. Lepage was accused of cultural appropriation and whitewashing.

The controversy sparked a rebuttal from the accused, who stated that the protest and cancellations threatened artistic freedom and the basic principle of theatre to represent the “others,” that is, “stepping into the shoes of another person to try to understand them” (Lepage 2018). It is taken for granted that the freedom of expression must be protected, but the issues of First Nations in Canada, in particular, are historically sensitive. Thus, this paper focuses on the controversy over Kanata, examining the historical background and the current situation of indigenous people as well as the significance of the controversy over Kanata.

This paper examines the possibility of applying the theoretical findings of the Proteus effect, recently proposed in the field of computer game studies, to theater and film studies.

The Proteus effect is a psychological effect which is observable in the (tele-) communication environment of virtual reality, or in the play environment of a computer game when utilizing its players' avatars (visual representations of participants) in a virtual space.

The Proteus effect is that the personality traits implied by the appearances of avatars have a lasting and modifying effect on the participants' own behaviors and values.

This article focuses on the similarities between VR communication environments and theatrical performances. In either case, it can be argued that communication in a broader sense is established by participants wearing the appearances of others.

From this perspective, this paper attempts to argue the two following points. The first is confirmation that the appearances of fictional characters, which have so far attracted little theoretical attention, actually contribute to the quality of acting. Secondly, this paper recognizes an actor-like quality in the participants of cyberspace communication and in the players of computer games. By asserting the actor-like quality in these participants and game players, this thesis proposes a comprehensive perspective for discussing the role of participants of VR communication environments along with computer game players, and theatre and movie audiences.

Yumemonogatari Rosei no Sugata-e, which written by Kawatake Mokuami and premiered in 1886, is renowned as one of the katsureki-mono (new historical plays) promoted by Ichikawa Danjūrō IX, and Danjūrō strived to exemplify his perspective toward the reformation of existing historical plays in his performance as the main character, Watanabe Kazan. However, the elements irrelevant to Danjūrō have been neglected in research to date, since Yumemonogatari was firmly defined as a representative katsureki-mono. In this context, this study aims to shed light on the other main character, Takano Chōei, played by Ichikawa Sadanji under the influence of the playwright Mokuami, in order to illustrate two trends in the kabuki industry in the middle of Meiji period: “reformation” and “reminiscence”.

With the support of contemporary intellectuals, including Matsumoto Ryojūn who suggested the creation of Yumemonogatari, Danjūrō portrayed Kazan as an idealistic literati and samurai, which was aligned with his philosophy on katsureki-mono. For instance, he embodied the essence of katsureki-mono that pursued historical investigations and his own acting method based upon modern realism. On the other hand, Sadanji based his performance of Chōei on his sewa-mono characters from the late Edo and early Meiji periods. I argue that this reflected the intention of Mokuami who often used theatrical methods stimulating nostalgia for Edo culture in audiences that were critical of the kabuki reform movement and also katsureki-mono.

In the final michiyuki (journey scene) of Sonezaki Shinju (1703), Chikamatsu Monzaemon quotes Noh song verses to illuminate Tokube and Ohatsu, the titular suicidal lovers. Aside from the sexual desire, the scene alludes to “aisyo” (deep sorrow toward the mutability of the world), as written in Kadensyo (a record of Noh play).

This paper reexamines the conventional explanatory note of this michiyuki and presents a new interpretation based on an analysis of Noh songs' influence on michiyuki.

Ohatsu and Tokube hear a bell echoing “freedom from desires is true bliss” —a verse from the Noh song Miidera. Miidera's heroine liberated herself from longing for her missing child by gazing at a bright moon, Ohatsu and Tokube, however, see “heartless” clouds and hear the rain, which symbolize sorrow toward the mutability of the world.

Upon seeing the shining Big Dipper, evoking the Noh song Yuya, Ohatsu and Tokube begin considering how miracles preserve love, not life. Tokube compares Umeda Bridge, where they stand, to a bridge of magpies, promising they will become love-stars like the Tanabata legend's lovers. Ohatsu sheds sorrowful tears, praying that they be reborn into “one lotus flower (deliverance from their agonizing attachment by actually being together in paradise).” This again evokes Miidera, with an inverse conclusion.

However, Ohatsu's wish was similar to the merciful Kannon's vow (from the opening scene) that love may form “a bridge to paradise.”