Feminist Aesthetics in Kishida Rio's Theatre Texts: On  Shintokumaru (Poison Boy) and Ito Jigoku (Thread Hell)

Kishida Rio (1946 -2003) was a playwright, director, and  screenwriter. She got her start in theatre with the experimental  theatre laboratory Tenjo Sajiki (translated as Children of  Paradise) in 1974. Tenjo Sajiki was headed by Terayama Shuji  (1935-83), one of the charismatic male leaders of Japan's angura (underground) theatre groups in the 1960s and 1970s. While working  closely with Terayama, Kishida also developed independent theatre projects with other theatre companies from 1977, and founded her  own theatre company in 1984 after Terayama's death. The play Ito Jigoku (Thread Hell), which depicts working women living in  darkness and silence as Japan establishes itself as a modern nation  state through exploiting them, was awarded the prestigious Kishida  Kunio Drama Prize in 1985, and featured at the 1992 Adelaide  Festival. In this presentation I want to explore the feminist aesthetics in her theatre texts such as Shintokumaru (Poison Boy)  and her major play, Ito Jigoku (Thread Hell), by focusing on her relationship with Terayama in their collaborations and negotiations.