General Talks on Theater

What makes theater an art in its own right? Kishida Kunio approaches that question through the play, the actor, the director, the physical stage, and the imagination of an audience. His argument moves from the artistic purification of theater to competing visions of its future.

First issued in nine installments between 1924 and 1925, General Talks on Theater surveys naturalism, symbolism, modernism, and the search for a theater founded on the expressive power of words. Kishida discusses Antoine, Craig, Copeau, the Moscow Art Theatre, and many dramatists while questioning spectacle, theatrical convention, and claims of artistic authority. Small theaters and vast public stages become contrasting possibilities for the relationship between art and the people.

This complete English translation preserves the lecture sequence and its provocative concluding challenge to Japanese theater. Concise notes explain named figures, historical expressions, and textual details. It offers a substantial account of theatrical art by a dramatist seeking both a firmer foundation and a more imaginative future.