Tadashi Yamauchi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer 12:00 JST, May 24, 2024 The iconic red tent theater shakes with excitement as the actors inside leap about the stage. The dialogue they deliver during their performance is lively, filled with humor and lyricism – it is the work of the late playwright, director and actor Juro Kara. And now a younger generation of actors is enlivening the theater troupe he founded with a new wave of energy.
The troupe, called the Karagumi (Kara group), is known for its unconventional approach: The actors themselves do all the preparations for stage productions, including setting up a mobile red tent at each venue, and they insist on going through with performing regardless of wind, rain or anything else that might get in the way. Currently, the troupe is staging a long-awaited revival of the play “Doro Ningyo” (Muddy mermaid), one of Kara’s masterpieces. On May 4, the day before “Doro Ningyo” opened in Tokyo, Kara died of an acute subdural hematoma at a hospital in the capital.
He was 84. Kara, who headed the Karagumi until his death, first rose to prominence as the leader of the Jokyo Gekijo (Situation theater) troupe, becoming a major figure in the underground or “small theater” movement during the Showa era (1926-1989), alongside luminaries such as Shuji Terayama, another renowned poet and playwright. In 1967, he set up his red tent theater for the first time.
The theater, made from a single sheet on the grounds of Hanazono Shri.