午夜剧场

"I have seen many productions of 'Madame de Sade,' but it was only through Tadashi Suzuki's direction that I finally understood Yukio Mishima's intentions."

This was a comment from a friend.

'Madame de Sade' is one of Yukio Mishima's masterpieces. Centered on Renée, the Marquise de Sade, the play depicts the Marquis de Sade from the perspectives of six women: his mother-in-law, sister-in-law, friends, and a servant. It is difficult to understand because it utilizes Mishima's signature brilliant rhetoric and heavy use of conceptual language. However, under Tadashi Suzuki's direction, it became a remarkably clear and accessible stage production.

Why did this happen?

Normally, actors memorize the words written by a playwright and speak them on stage. However, words written by another person (the playwright) are not, in the end, the actor's own words. To make them one's own, one must live those words through one's own body. Speaking from the lips alone is not enough.

Even so, the meaning of the words gets across. The story is understood. An audience watching might think that is a play, but it is not a true play. A true play does not reside in the surface meaning or the story of the words; it appears only when the actor lives those words to the fullest on stage. That is theater.

Tadashi Suzuki pursued the idea of actors single-mindedly living these words. As a result, the actors took the words written by the author—the words of another—and lived them as their own through their bodies. Instead of the superficial meaning or the plot, the totality of the language emerged, revealing the hidden depths of the author's spirit. That is why it was so easy to understand.

This was a revolution in the history of theater, a renaissance that revitalized the art form. At the same time, it was one of the turning points from the modern to the contemporary era. This is because the relationship between human speech and the body connects to the very structure of human beings and the question of how we perceive humanity. Therefore, Suzuki's revolution signified a shift from a modern view of humanity to a contemporary one. Tadashi Suzuki carried out that revolution. To see exactly what methods he used, you will have to read this book. However, as someone who lived through this era of revolution, I wanted to examine its significance. Consequently, this book also represents a final summation of my own life.

Tamotsu Watanabe

Iwanami Shoten

224 pages, 2,300 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of publication.