Rashomon (play)

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Though Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon is the most famous instance, Akutagawa's stories have also been adapted for the stage.

1 Source material
2 Stage versions
3 References
4 External Links

[edit] Source material

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's two short stories "Rashomon" (1915 - AKA "The Rashomon Gate") and "In a Grove" (1921 - AKA "The Cedar Grove") were famously fused and adapted as the basis for Akira Kurosawa's award-winning film "Rashomon" (1950), screenplay by Akutagawa and frequent collaborator Shinobu Hashimoto. In 1951 the film won an honorary International Academy Award, following the success of the film in winning a Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in the same year. The Kurosawa and Hashimoto screenplay deviate from Akutagawa's original stories in a number of ways, most notably by allowing a note of hope to triumph over Akutagawa's dark pessimism.

[edit] Stage versions

[edit] Fay and Michael Kanin

This 1959 Broadway adaptation ran for six months (January-June) at the Music Box Theatre, New York, starring husband and wife Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom. The Kanin's production was nominated for three Tony awards; for more details see the Internet Broadway Database entry.

The Kanins' somewhat sentimental script sticks closely to the film, including elements added by Kurosawa that do not appear in Akutagawa's original short stories. The Kanins later went on to write the film screenplay for the Western "The Outrage", which also credits Akutagawa (but not Hashimoto). "The Outrage" was one of several Westerns based on Kurosawa's films, most notably John Sturges' "The Magnificent Seven", adapted from Kurosawa's historical epic "Seven Samurai" (1960) and Sergio Leone's ground-breaking "Sphagetti Western" "A Fistful of Dollars/Per un pugno di dollari" (1964). The Kanin's script was also staged on US television as a "Play of the Week" (1960).

East West Players presented the first intimate staging of the play, as their inaugural production in 1966.^[1]

More modern adaptations of Rashomon have gone back to Akutagawa's original stories.

[edit] Ivor Benjamin

Benjamin's 1988 adaptation is from original translations by Jane Guaschi, then a language student at Sheffield University, UK and stays closer to the bleaker viewpoint of Akutagawa than the Kanin's version. This adaptation received its international premiere by Storytellers Theatre Company, Ireland, 2005, for which the tour was nominated for two ESB/Irish Times 2005 Theatre Awards: Liam Halligan for Best Director and Chisato Yoshimi for Best Costume Design. The script has also been performed at Jackson's Lane Theatre, London, UK (1988), the University of the Philippines (2000) and most recently at Ashland, Oregon, USA (2006 - review)

[edit] Other Adaptations

"Rashomon" - adaptation by Meena Natarajan and Luu Pham was for Pangea World Theater (2000), details at the Pangea website.

"Rashomon" - adaptation by Philippe Cherbonnier (after Akutagawa), Directed by Kwong Loke, Kumiko Mendl & David K.S. Tse for Yellow Earth Theatre Company, London UK and tour, (2001). details at Yellow Earth and Dimsum - the British Chinese Community Website

There is also a 1977 opera (unedited link) composed by Alejandro Viñao, with libretto by Craig Raine.