Ichikawa : Wonder of theatre

Ishara JAYAWARDANE

Akiro Ichikawa is one of those old masters of theatre. He is an expert in contemporary Japanese and German theatre and Bertolt Brecht.

He went to Germany for further studies in 1979, and studied the works of Bertolt Brecht (1898- 1956). Brecht is the most famous dramatist of the 20th century and the most influential theatre man of the 20th century.

Ichikawa studied German Theatre whereas Brecht had a good knowledge of Japanese theatre. It is almost as if both Brecht and Ichikawa are opposite reflections of each other.

Professor Ichikawa with translator Michael Fernando ( Former Head Department of Fine Arts, University of Peradeniya, Chairman, Arts Council 2000-2001)

Ichikawa hailing from Japan is a lecturer and a professor at the Department of Theatre Science, Osaka University, Japan. Ichikawa, 62, has committed himself to a lifetime of understanding theatre art and science, especially the traditional three forms of Japanese theatre: Noh, Kabuki and Bunraku.

He is an expert in Asian theatre especially Japanese theatre. He is also an expert in contemporary Western theatre, especially German Theatre. Following are excerpts from the interview given by Prof Ichikawa. "I have translated many plays by Bertolt Brecht and Heiner Muller (1927-1996) and other German contemporary dramatists into German and published in Osaka."

"I want to compare theatre done by Brecht and Japanese theatre. There are many similarities and specially the influence of Japanese theatre on German theatre and also there are differences. I do social dramas about problem in society. That is a similarity between German and Japanese plays.

"Many German plays are on social themes like Japan. Japanese theatre and Chinese theatre influenced Brecht. In all these three forms; Noh, Kabuki and Bunraku, all the female characters are played by males. I am mainly interested in Kabuki."

Brecht called his own theatre as epic theatre. By epic theatre he meant theatre with active and narration both.

In Japanese theatre you get this narration part. First the narrator comes and explains the story.

Brecht wanted to break the illusion. He was against illusion theatre. For example if you played a story, according to Brecht, the spectators must know and be aware, that this is not real. And also to do that he has developed this Theory of Estrangement. Earlier the translation was alienation. Later they corrected this as estrangement.

When a king is on the stage, Brecht, wanted the audience to be aware that this is a role played by an actor.

Not a real person. That is the main thing. A character of a king played by a contemporary artist. He wanted to distance that character and the actor.

In these Kabuki plays when a female character comes on stage spectators know that this is not a woman this is a man and the man plays the role of a woman.

Kabuki is 400 years old. Noh is a little older than Kabuki, Bunraku is also 400 years old. In a Noh play they always use the mask.

I was an avid reader when I was young and I joined the university staff after graduation and did research and now I am a professor and head of the department of media and arts.