Performances of Masculinity in Angura Theatre: Suzuki Tadashi on the Actress and Satô Makoto’s Abe Sada’s Dogs

Abstract

The little theatre movement, more commonly known as angura (underground) theatre, rose to prominence in Japan during the 1960s and 1970s in denial of the existing modern and new theatre movements. Representative angura theatre groups include Suzuki Tadashi’s Waseda Shôgekijô (Waseda Little Theatre, 1966), which grew out of Jiyû Butai (Free Stage, 1961), Kara Jûrô’s Jôkyô Gekijô (Situation Theatre, 1962), also known as Aka Tento (Red Tent performances began in 1967), Terayama Shûji’s Tenjô Sajiki (1967), and Satô Matoko’s Engeki Sentâ 68/71 (Theatre Center 68/71, originally formed as Theatre Center 68 in 1968), otherwise known as Kuro Tento (Black Tent performances began in 1970). Expressing the rebelliousness of Japanese youth against postwar civil society, these theatre groups at times engaged in scandalous and anarchistic forms of counter-culture that spilled from the arts and culture pages of the newspapers to enliven page three.

Focusing on Suzuki Tadashi and Satô Makoto, two of the charismatic male leaders of the 60s and 70s little theatre movement, this essay asks what the significance was for them of representing transgressive heroines comparable to the Situation Theatre’s Ri Reisen on stage. I look firstly at both Suzuki and Satô’s discourses on the actress, before moving on to examine Satô’s 1975 play Abe Sada’s Dogs.