357:, with an added twist. There are two women who meet Estragon and Vladimir while waiting for Godot. Before long, Godot does arrive. He looks like a traveler, wearing a trench coat and carrying a suitcase and an umbrella. He lets everybody know that he is Godot and that he has arrived. But by the time Estragon and Vladimir hear the news, they already have their hands full with other things to do. It turns out that the lady waiting for the bus may be Estragon's mother and that the child carried by the other woman may be Vladimir's son. The characters are depicted as being so busy with their real lives that they forget what or who they are waiting for.
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173:; however, his style of play changed multiple times along the way. For example, he moved into the concept of isolation in the post-war period. His motivation was the "animosity and agony" aroused by the condition of the times. Betsuyaku believed that "the moment we understood that it is a solitude resulting from animosity and agony, that solitude could become a weapon". However, this theme disappeared in his writing by the 1980s.
103:. This led Betsuyaku to neglect both his studies and his finances, causing him to drop out of Waseda in 1961 due to non-payment of tuition. Around this time, Betsuyaku took a leave of absence from the theatre to become involved in protests against the establishment of a military base on the island of Niijima. When he returned from his hiatus later that year, Betsuyaku wrote his first play,
145:. Betsuyaku called this "Beckett space". Realist plays feature complex characters with names to make the play more realistic. However, Betsuyaku's and Beckett's plays had simple characters with no names. This style of play was unique and open to interpretation. For example, the characters were identified as
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in 1937. Betsuyaku's early years were difficult because in addition to experiencing severe deprivation during World War II, his father also died. In July 1946, a year after the sudden Soviet invasion of
Manchuria, his mother succeeded in repatriating by ship with her children. The family spent two
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Alice lives in a country where a republican government and a monarchy exist simultaneously. Alice is then given double sentences of exile by these two organizations. Alice rediscovers her true identity during exile and tells the world, "I Am Alice": the theme is that a person must rediscover their
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is one of his most famous plays and was first presented by Jiyu Butai (Free Stage). It is a story about a patient who is a victim of the atomic bombing with a strange desire to show off his scar in order to get sympathy and applause from his audiences. His nephew tries to stop him and convince him
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It is about a woman paying a visit to the home of an ordinary middle-class elderly couple. She makes a claim that she was the daughter of the couple. She brings herself a younger brother and her children to the house. It is a work that criticizes the postwar attitude of pretending that the war had
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that was only visible to the actors, and typically made use of extensive props and detailed backdrops to make the play more realistic. However, Betsuyaku's work was like
Beckett's work in the sense that it had no walls and it had very few props or background objects. For example, some of his plays
190:. The plot and characters were unchanged but the setting was changed to Japan. Betsuyaku is trying to say that meaning of life is completely lost and that the search for identity is empty. This is a reference to the people of Japan after the loss in World War II.
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that the audience neither loves, hates, nor cares about the atomic bombing victims. Additionally, he tries to convince his uncle that victims should suffer their pain in silence. These contradicting characters depict how victims of war deal with their pain.
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with the intention of becoming a newspaper correspondent. On his first day of classes, an upperclassman suggested that he look into becoming an actor since he was tall. Thus, he joined a drama club called the Jiyu Butai, where he met
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He left Waseda Little
Theatre in 1968, and in 1970 he married actress Yuko Kusunoki, an indispensable partner in many productions of Betsuyaku's work, especially in her small theatre group, the Snail Theatre Group
107:. The play was about a man, man B, who felt inferior to man A. Man B is continuously derided by man A until man B finally kills man A. The play was inspired in part by the 1957 film
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74:, where he finished high school. At this time Betsuyaku hoped to become a painter, but due to his family's strong disapproval, he instead moved to Tokyo in 1958 and enrolled in
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Seven men and women have gathered for "Rite of Death by
Starvation". They isolated themselves with the intention of dying, but they must starve together as a group.
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This is a work that shows a fight resulting from unidentified animosity and feelings of inferiority between two men A and B who deride each other and argue.
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41:("underground") theater movement in Japan. He won a name for himself as a writer in the "nonsense" genre and helped lay the foundations of the Japanese "
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1972 – "New Artist" Award of the
Ministry of Education's Selected Artists Encouragement Awards ("The Revolt of the Breeze Tribe")
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Betsuyaku's career took off when he joined the Waseda Little
Theater Company. He created many works with the principle of
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Cody, Gabrielle H., and Evert
Sprinchorn. The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama. New York: Columbia UP, 2007. Print.
128:, whose works came to be known in Japan around the time that young playwrights in Japan were seeking to break away from
498:
Miller, J. Scott. Historical
Dictionary of Modern Japanese Literature And: Theater. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2009. Print.
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411:"The Unending Quest of Minoru Betsuyaku, the Playwright Who Has Laid the Foundation of Japanese Drama of the Absurd"
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1987 – Yomiuri
Literature Award ("The Story of the Two Knights Traveling Around the Country" and other plays)
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2007 – Kinokuniya
Theater Award ("Godot Has Come" and "If a Dog Turns to the West, Its Tail Faces the East")
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during his career. He focused mainly on "Japanizing" Chekhov's work. For example, Betsuyaku wrote his play
495:
Kennedy, Dennis. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre & Performance. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. Print.
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was one of Japan's most prominent postwar playwrights, novelists, and essayists, associated with the
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99:. The pair began producing a political theatre of protest, which eventually evolved into the
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501:"On Waiting and Forgetting -." Stories of the Mirror. N.p., 30 Aug. 2012. Web. 8 June 2015.
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The story is about two men, Estragon and Vladimir, who wait for a person named Godot.
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1988 – Minister of Education Award for the Arts ("Giovanni's Journey to His Father")
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1971 – Kinokuniya Theater Award ("A Town and a Blimp" and "Alice in Wonderland")
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2008 – 11th Tsuruya Nanboku Play Award and the Asahi Award ("Godot Has Come")
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After Apocalypse: Four Japanese Plays of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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Vladimir and Estragon (June 2010 production of the play at
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had only a telephone pole, like the lone tree in Beckett's
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A story told in numbers – the end of the "let's die group"
113:, which had a similar plot with an irresolvable conflict.
216:("The Little Match Girl" and "A Scene With A Red Bird")
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Suji de Kakareta Monogatari – "Shinou Dan" Tenmatsuki
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In 1960, Betsuyaku and Suzuki became involved in the
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Minoru Betsuyaku was born in the Japanese colony of
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1998 – Special Award of the 39th Mainichi Art Award
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203:(1978–1799). In 1971 a daughter was born.
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124:Another early influence was
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464:Clayton, Douglas (2013).
214:Kishida Kunio Drama Award
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252:A to B to Hitori no Onna
97:US–Japan Security Treaty
435:Goodman, David (1986).
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132:plays, and especially
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535:Yomiuri Prize winners
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274:The Little Match Girl
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269:Match Uri no Shojo
201:Katatsumuri no Kai
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355:Waiting for Godot
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134:socialist realism
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110:An Eye for an Eye
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68:Shimizu, Shizuoka
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299:The Elephant
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313:true self.
153:instead of
138:fourth wall
509:Categories
420:August 25,
373:References
307:I Am Alice
53:Early life
62:years in
59:Manchuria
368:, India)
130:realist
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207:Awards
72:Nagano
39:Angura
151:man B
147:man A
64:Kōchi
470:ISBN
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422:2023
159:John
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149:and
26:別役 実
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