Mishima on Stage: The Black Lizard and Other PlaysMishima on Stage presents nine plays written between 1949 and 1962 that demonstrate Mishima's breadth and originality as a playwright. Four are new kabuki plays that combine classical language and lyricism, the dance, music, and spectacle of traditional kabuki, and iconoclastic notions of class and morality that are "pure Mishima." Five are shingeki plays, including the tightly written one-act Steeplechase, which fuses contemporary psychological realism with the structure of a tantric Buddhist exorcism ritual, and The Black Lizard, a campy, romping, romantic detective mystery full of trickery and disguise. One unifying theme shared among all the plays is the belief that deception and deceit are essential to human relationships. These character traits appear as hidden incestuous love that threatens to destroy an upper-middle class family (The Lighthouse), as weapons of choice for the powerless mistress of a business magnate (the modern noh play Yuya), or as the means to facilitate wholesome but socially forbidden romantic liaisons (two kabuki comedies). Mishima on Stage makes the genius of Japan's leading postwar playwright more accessible and apparent than ever before. |
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actors AKECHI AMAMIYA audiences Bandō Tamasaburō beautiful BLACK LIZARD blossoms Bungaku-za bunraku Busu buyō characters CHIZ classical dance daughter Donald Keene door drama EBINA Edo period enters father feel gidayū hanamichi Harumochi Hell Screen HINA Hisashi HOTARUBI Ibid ISAKO IWASE Japan Japanese JIRŌTA jōruri kabuki plays Kabuki-za KARAFUJI KEITH KIKU kyōgen Lady Aoi Lady Fuyo look Madame de Sade MADAME MIDORIKAWA MAKIMURA MASAKO master MATSUKICHI Mishima play Mishima wrote Mishima Yukio Mishima Yukio hyōron modern noh plays mother MUNEMORI Nakamura Utaemon NARRATOR never NOBORU onnagata OWAKI Phaedra playwright RASPOTINOV reprinted in Mishima Rokumeikan ROKUROZAEMON SAEKO Samanosuke SANAE Sardine Sardine Seller SARUGENJI Sash Stealing Pond scene shamisen shimpa shingeki play Shochiku sits sofa stage left stage right steeplechase Tamasaburō tell theatre TOAD Toad Bandit Tokyo TSUGAWA TSUYUKUSA USHISUKE voice woman YOSHIHIDE YOSHITAKA YUKICHI Yukio hyōron zenshū YUMEKO Yuya