Playwright, novelist and theatre director Okada Toshiki is one of the most important voices of the current generation of Japanese contemporary theatre makers. He founded his globally influential theatre company chelfitsch in 1997. Using a unique style and a distinctive language, his plays address issues such as social inequity, life in Japan after the 3\/11 Earthquake, and posthuman society. Okada is a theatrical visionary showing undercurrents in everyday moments and the strangeness of being alive in our time.<\/p>\n
In Okada Toshiki and Japanese Theatre<\/em><\/span>, Okada\u2019s work and its importance to the development of contemporary performance in Japan and around the world is explored. Gathered here for the first time in English is a comprehensive selection of essays, interviews and translations of three of Okada\u2019s plays by leading scholars and translators. Okada\u2019s writing on theatre is also included, accompanied by an extensive array of images from his performances.<\/p>\n The phenomenal success of Okada Toshiki’s global productions has galvanized international critics into forming intriguing theoretical perspectives on his theatre. Acknowledging Okada’s affinity to Japan\u2019s lost generation, Brechtian distantiation and Noh aesthetics, these critics have applied new conceptual frames such as the poetics of disarticulation, the poesis of liminality and slow dramaturgy to elucidate the deep structure of his performances.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/span>Mari Boyd, Professor Emeritus, Sophia University, Japan.<\/span><\/p>\n Cover image credit: chelfitsch and Kaneuji Teppei Eraser Forest<\/em>, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (Kanazawa), 2020. Photo Kioku Keiz\u014d.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n CONTENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n SECTION ONE: OKADA\u2019S DRAMATURGY<\/p>\n Okada Toshiki\u2019s Narrative Method<\/strong> The \u2018Hyper-Real\u2019 and the Shadow of Noh<\/strong> Making Time Material: On Okada Toshiki\u2019s Time\u2019s Journey Through a Room<\/em> (2016)<\/strong> Translating Okada Toshiki<\/strong> Fuzzy Boundaries, Foggy Pictures: Okada Toshiki\u2019s poesies of liminality<\/strong> Ruptures, Gravity, Dwelling. Reflections on Okada Toshiki\u2019s movement aesthetic<\/strong> <\/p>\n SECTION TWO: ART, SOCIETY AND GLOBALITY<\/p>\n Seen From Close-up in the Distance: Shibuya as a bubble downtown<\/strong> Simultaneous Turns in Globality: Performative and social turns in the new millennium, or theorizing\/historicizing Okada Toshiki\u2019s welcome to European festival cultures<\/strong> Reflections on Precarity and Emotional Fulfillment in Everyday Life in the Theatre of Okada Toshiki<\/strong> \u2018Who Knows We Want To Be An International<\/em> Artist?\u2019 Producing Okada Toshiki\u2019s theatre and the international scene<\/strong> Okada Toshiki\u2019s Dramaturgy in the Post-global Condition<\/strong> Foreign Assembly: Okada\u2019s Time\u2019s Journey through a Room<\/em> in the United States<\/strong> <\/p>\n SECTION THREE: DOCUMENTS, INTERVIEW AND PLAYS<\/p>\n An Interview with Okada Toshiki<\/strong> Reflux: A protean theatre theory<\/strong> Sounding like a Typical Post-Corona Theory of Theatre<\/strong> <\/p>\n THREE PLAY TRANSLATIONS<\/p>\n Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and The Farewell Speech<\/em><\/strong> The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise<\/em><\/strong> Ground and Floor<\/em><\/strong>
\nCody Poulton<\/p>\n
\nStanca Scholz-Cionca<\/p>\n
\nSara Jansen<\/p>\n
\nAndreas Regelsberger<\/p>\n
\nIwaki Ky\u014dko<\/p>\n
\nHolger Hartung<\/p>\n
\nNoda Manabu<\/p>\n
\nUchino Tadashi<\/p>\n
\nBarbara Geilhorn<\/p>\n
\nYokobori Masahiko<\/p>\n
\nPeter Eckersall<\/p>\n
\nCarol Martin<\/p>\n
\nIwaki Ky\u014dko<\/p>\n
\nBy Okada Toshiki. English translation by Iwaki Ky\u014dko<\/p>\n
\nBy Okada Toshiki. English translation by Cody Poulton<\/p>\n
\nBy Okada Toshiki. English translation by Aya Ogawa<\/p>\n
\nBy Okada Toshiki. English translation by Aya Ogawa<\/p>\n
\nBy Okada Toshiki. English translation by Aya Ogawa<\/p>\n\n\n