| Leading Japanese theatre director, Yukichi Matsumoto for some years now has been taking on some of the big themes. In 2009, an epic production of his, called Nostalgia' was at the Perth Festival. It was a story about thousands of Japanese workers who migrated to South America, early in the 20th Century. More recently, 'When a Grey Taiwanese Cow Stretched' was staged at the Singapore Arts Festival. This is also about migration and dispossession and events around WWII. Matsumoto, and his company Ishinha, devise performance by starting with movement. There's very little straight dialogue in his theatre, it's really all about mood and image, staged outdoors, on a grand scale. Matsumoto comes out of a tradition of Japanese theatre that takes its inspiration from big themes rather than character. Roger Pulvers is a playwright, director and translator. He divides his time between Australia and Japan and he's been doing that for more than 40 years now. He was in Australia recently for a series of lectures, on imagination and fantasy in Japanese theatre and writing |
