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Kabukuing Shakespeare: Gender Crossings in Takarazuka's Shakespeare Adaptations
Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1015-7664
2025 (English)In: Comparative drama, ISSN 0010-4078, E-ISSN 1936-1637, Vol. 59, no 3, p. 20-42Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article discusses gender transformations in the Takarazuka Revue, focusing on two small-theatre Shakespeare adaptations set in kabuki milieus: Epiphany (based on Twelfth Night) and Fuyu monogatari (based on The Winter’s Tale).1 The Takarazuka Revue is a 111-year-old Japanese music-theatre company best known for its all-female casts and otokoyaku (male-role specialists). Shakespeare used boy actors for female roles, including comic cross-dressing roles where heroines appear in male disguise for large portions of the plot. Kabuki, in its current high-cultural manifestation as a traditional Japanese theatre form, employs all-male casts due to a historic ban on female performers. Epiphany and Fuyu monogatari both involve the otokoyaku star crossing back and forth between male and female double roles, and in the case of Epiphany, the “triple drag” role of a female in male disguise. I argue that the Takarazuka Revue queers or rather kabukus Shakespeare by drawing on and meta-theatrically alluding to the Japanese performance tradition of which they are an important part.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Western Michigan University, Department of English , 2025. Vol. 59, no 3, p. 20-42
National Category
Gender Studies Performing Art Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-123950DOI: 10.1353/cdr.2025.a969919ISI: 001574167600002Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105016350811OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-123950DiVA, id: diva2:2001363
Available from: 2025-09-26 Created: 2025-09-26 Last updated: 2026-01-23Bibliographically approved

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Solander, Tove

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