Akutagawa

Re-imagining Manga as Live Theatre: Stories by Akutagawa

Akutagawa is an exploration of “Live Manga,” a hybrid performance form that fuses traditional Japanese paper theatre (Kamishibai) with British traditions such as Toy Theatre and Crankies. The piece integrates live video feeds, projections, and dynamic interactions between a masked performer and digital elements, creating a cinematic stage experience that blends the immediacy of live performance with the visual language of manga.

The work draws on several short stories by the Japanese modernist writer Akutagawa Ryūnosuke. At its centre is Kandata, a flawed man who is reincarnated—from criminal to monk—across multiple eras of Japanese history, including the Edo period (1600–1868), the psychedelic 1970s, and the medieval past. In each life, Kandata makes selfish, morally ambiguous choices, yet through his repeated suffering he gradually discovers that his fate ultimately lies in his own hands.

^{Photo by Ikin Yum}

Film by Charlie Flint

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Creative Members

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This project is funded by Arts Council England, The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, New Earth Theatre, Lewisham Council and Camden People’s Theatre.