The Body Ill at Ease in Post-War Japanese Theatre

Many theatre pieces in Japan now focus on a certain type of physicality which results from the sense of unease present in Japanese society. Manabu Noda argues that the senses of estrangement, distrust, apathy, helplessness, and incongruity in this supposedly democratic country come partly from the macho pressures under the right-wing Koizumi administration of 2001–06, and examines some current Japanese performances in the context of Japanese post-war society and of the continuing conflict in Iraq. He explores how these performances stage the body ill at ease – perceived as something irrevocably ‘left behind’ physically rather than textually. Manabu Noda is former general secretary of the Japan Centre of the International Association of Theatre Critics, and presently holds the position of Professor in the School of Arts and Letters at Meiji University in Tokyo. A theatre critic, he has also published books and essays on British and Japanese acting and theatre history. The present paper is based on a presentation in October 2006 at the conference ‘Foundation and Horizon of Hong Kong Performing Arts Criticism’, organized by the International Association of Theatre Critics in Hong Kong, and on a shortened version presented at the IATC 2006 Extraordinary Congress in Seoul.