Keiji Sawada giving a lecture for a Japanese production of Norm and Ahmed at Sengawa Theatre, Tokyo Source: Keiji Sawada
Before Mr. Sawada picked up the book 'The Floating World' by John Romeril, a classic of Australian modern theatre, he had been studying Shakespeare.
Even though the book is about the sad history between Japan and Australia during World War II, 'The Floating World' was little-known in Japan. Australian theatre is not a common topic to study at that time, at university.
Mr. Sawada was deeply impressed by the book and decided to translate it into Japanese, with keen help from Mr. John Romeril himself.
"I was just a newly-started researcher with not much experience. But he (Mr. Romeril) gave me detailed explanations, kindly and passionately. Teaching me Australian slang. Without that, it wouldn't have been possible for a Japanese person like me to translate the book. He seemed to see the significance of his book being translated and read by Japanese people, and took it seriously", Prof. Sawada recalled.
Where is indigenous theatre in Japan?
Prof. Sawada hasn't been able to visit Australia for two years due to the coronavirus pandemic. Being asked what the trend was in Australian modern play before the pandemic, he pointed out two things: highly-regarded stories of various ethnic groups became more visible on stage, and the emergence of writers with Asian backgrounds.
"Australian modern play has changed and started evolving in 1970s, by the efforts from the art world to find their own Australian voices and their own Australian stories. Theatre by indigenous people in Australia started increasing their presence," Mr. Sawada said.
"In that context, we can learn a lot from Australia. By bringing Australian theatre play to Japan, we can learn different, various perspectives that we usually don't find in Japan. Especially theatre play by indigenous people. We don't have one as active as in Australia".
