Kanadehon Hamlet: A Play by Tsutsumi Harue

TLDR: The play is interesting on several levels: it has a strong dramatic action, concerns an important problem in the transition of Japanese drama from traditional forms to modern ones, reveals the kind of serious misunderstandings that occur when cultures collide, allows for exciting 'fusion' scenes in which Shakespeare is produced kabuki-style, and brings to the stage several real-life Kabuki figures, notably Morita Kan 'ya XII, the progressive Meiji-era producer.

Abstract: In the spring of 1997, the editor of ATJ witnessed a production of this play at New York's La MaMa E. T. C. and was immediately interested in publishing it. The play is interesting on several levels: it has a strong dramatic action, concerns an important problem in the transition ofJapanese drama from traditional forms to modern ones, reveals the kind of serious misunderstandings that occur when cultures collide, allows for exciting 'fusion" scenes in which Shakespeare is produced kabuki-style, and brings to the stage several real-life kabuki figures, notably Morita Kan 'ya XII, the progressive Meiji-era producer. The playwright also makes an interesting case for explaining Shakespeare's Hamlet to the kabuki company when, as suggested by her title, she uses the Japanese classic Kanadehon Chushingura as a point of comparison. Tsutsumi Harue is a doctoral student in East Asian languages and cultures at Indiana University. As a student of theatre history in the master's degree program at Osaka University, she studied under the distinguished playwright and scholar Yamazaki Masakazu. She was interested in playwriting as well as in the comparative natures of traditional apanese and Western drama. When she subsequently movedfromJapan to the United States she was prompted to focus on the clash between the two cultures. Herfourfull-length plays are Kanadehon Hamuretto (Kanadehon Hamlet), Rokumeikan Ibun (Strange Tales of the Rokumeikan), Tsukiji Hoterukan Enj6 (The Burning of the Tsukiji Hotel), and Seigeki Osero (Othello in Japan), as well as two one-act plays. Faubion Bowers, the chief translator, is one of the best-known Western authorities on Japanese theatre. His books include Japanese Theatre (1952) and Theatre in the East (1956).