Jyokyo Gekijo Theatre 1964-1975

Edition : First / Tokyo / Shirakawashoin / 1976 / Softcover. / VG+ / VG+
Small 4to, 212pp. Blue wraps in printed dustwrap. Black & White plates. Text in Japanese.

Monograph of Juro’s experimental troupe Jyokyo Gekijo, who along with Terayama’s Tenjyo Sajiki pushed what theatre was and could be. Jyokyo Gekijo pioneered the ‘little theatre’ movement in the sixties, echoing the concerns of Off Off Broadway, The Living Theatre, Kitchen Sink cinema and the social realism of mainland Europe. Though parallels with the west can be drawn the works of JG were authentically Japanese, producing an avalanche of original work which echoed the concerns of contemporary Japan. The concept of narrative itself was also transformed from linear to muti structured and layered, with boundaries of time and percieved reality being stretched and often broken completely. Juro can also be attributed to the creation of what was called ‘the theory of the privileged body’- an eschewing of the great plays and manuscripts in favour of the dramatic body of the performer.

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