Many experimental theatre troupes, known as Angura (underground or avant-garde theatre), emerged in the middle of the 1960s, a theatrical movement that rapidly gained influence from 1966 to 1970. Today, Angura is regarded as an important movement in Japan, but research on it remains insufficient. What was the theatrical movement Angura?

Engeki Centre 68/71 is considered to be the most political theatre troupe of the Angura movement. The Dance of Angels Who Burn Their Own Wings was written by four playwrights of the Centre in 1970. This play deals with the French Revolution to express the Centre's idea of revolution. Angura is concerned simply with a counter culture or political movement; as most of Angura's artists participated in a campus activism and their plays were often radical. The characters in this play are unable to achieve a revolution. However, this failure of a revolution does not suggest the limit of Angura; rather, it prevents the revolution from falling into self-contradiction. Through analyzing the text, it could be said that The Dance of Angels Who Burn Their Own Wings represents the Centre's struggle to avoid getting into such a simple revolutionary movement.