A Dive and a Dance with Kabuki Vaudeville: Taishū Engeki Comes Back!

Abstract

Taishū engeki occupies a niche in Japanese popular theatre between the all-male troupes of state-subsidized Kabuki and the highly commercial, all-female troupes of the Takarazuka Revue. Its origins are disputed: while some scholars trace it back to the thirteenth century, others say it is mostly a post-war phenomenon. Family-based, itinerant troupes comprising both sexes book theatres for a month at a time. They live in the theatre, sleeping onstage or in the house. They perform twice daily for largely working-class audiences. Tickets are cheap, but troupes supplement their box office with merchandise sales and with generous tips which patrons deliver in mid-performance. The form draws heavily on onnagata performance in Kabuki, less heavily on the otokoyaku (women in men’s roles) of the Takarazuka Revue. In taishū engeki, however, actors of both sexes often cross-dress with star performers appearing en homme and en femme in quick succession. Like vaudeville, whose demise was repeatedly announced in the early decades of the last century, taishū engeki has often been pronounced dead. Yet despite its notorious geriatric core audience, there are signs that taishū engeki is coming back. Robert Schneider is an Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois. He is also a playwright and translator whose articles and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, American Theatre, and Plays International & Europe. Nathan Schneider is a writer and translator who lives in Tokyo.