The Human Condition [人間の条件] (1958 Stage Play)

I've been meaning to write about this for a while, because it's something I consider to be a pretty big deal, but I've been slow to obtain materials I feel like I need to flesh out the post. When I talk about Hirata's filmography I tend to say that he had "two and a half" lead roles: one is Tetsuwan namida ari, the "half" is when he dubbed the lead role in Man from Vera Cruz, and the third is this, the lead role in a 1958 stage adaptation of The Human Condition, which ran from roughly September to November or possibly December. Not only did he play the lead role, this was also his first time acting for the stage in this capacity.¹

from my personal collection

I'm not really going to be talking about The Human Condition in general here, because the much more famous film adaptation starring Tatsuya Nakadai is widely acclaimed as one of the masterpieces of Japanese cinema, so enough has been said about that and probably about the novel that it's based on as well. I'm focusing solely on this particular stage adaptation. Like most of the plays I've written about, there doesn't seem to be any pictures taken while the play was being performed, so most if not all of the visual evidence related to The Human Condition comes from promotional pamphlets for it.

The play was co-directed by two people. One was Kazuo Kikuta, a very respected playwright of the post-war era. He worked for Toho to produce, among other things, Japanese adaptations of English-language plays such as My Fair Lady and Fiddler on the Roof. Kikuta was even well-known enough outside of Japan to have received an obituary in the New York Times after his death in 1973. The other director was Shozaburo Kubo, who I unfortunately cannot find much information about. He seems to have perhaps been involved in the artistic side of the production. The script was written by Kinji Obata, a playwright of some note who was not terribly prolific but was sometimes said to be "a successor" to Kazuo Kikuta.

I own a pamphlet from this performance. Inside is a brief blurb intended to sell potential viewers on it. Roughly translated, it reads:

Highly praised by all critics!

"A powerful work that makes the most of the original" (Asahi Shimbun)

This four-hour epic dramatizes the first and second parts of the original, said to be the biggest postwar bestseller.

The anguish of Kaji, a man of conscience and humanism, is depicted with a raw, breathtaking sense of tension.

It's worth a look.

"Pursues the stupidity of war" (Tokyo Shimbun)

For Geijutsu-za, which has mostly run mid-season plays up until now, this is a rare work that is almost a fully new drama. It is not just a digest of the original work, it is interesting, and there are many thought-provoking issues. This dramatization of four acts, thirteen scenes, and four hours is a success.

"A popular structure" (Sankei Shinkai)

In addition to being a timely project, the script (by Kinji Obata) and direction (by Kazuo Kikuta), overflow with humanism within a popular structure, making it a perfect performance for Geijutsu-za. [Akihiko] Hirata's excellent performance is also noteworthy.  

From the home to the workplace, The Human Condition receives wide-ranging recommendations: National Workers' Cultural Association, Mother & Housewife Association, Tokyo Regional Women's Organizations Federation, Manchu Association, Repatriates' Organizations Federation, Tetsudo Manchuria-Mongolia Compatriots Support Association, Tokyo Teachers' Union, Kaimenkai, National Film and Theater Workers' Union.

Before we move on, I just want to point something out about that pamphlet. See this?

They misspelled his name. That says "Teruhiko".

I have some further information on the process of adapting the original work to the stage. All of the writers and producers had some familiarity with each other prior to the play being staged: Obata was commissioned by the company that Kubo worked for to adapt the book, and Obata had also met the author of The Human Condition, Junpei Gomikawa. Obata was paid ¥10,000 for the script (about $70 in today's USD). This happened early in Obata's career, and because of the success of this endeavor, he went on to become a writer and director for Toho.

not from my personal collection, but maybe someday it will be. top: Yoko Tsukasa, bottom: Aiko Mimasu

The Human Condition was performed at the Geijutsu-za, a theater operated directly by Toho. How directly? Well, it was literally inside what was their headquarters building at the time. By modern standards this theater was fairly small, seating only 750 people. The Geijutsu-za has now closed, but it is still a theater, just under a different name (Theater Creation) and new ownership. Photos from the inside of the Geijutsu-za while it was operating under that name are surprisingly scarce, but we can get a general idea of the space from photos of Theater Creation:

While I was doing research into this play, I ran across something that I don't see often. Shortly after Yoshiko Kuga passed away last year, Makoto Kobayashi, a former Toho actor who is currently 90 years old and still blogging, wrote a post about her, Hirata, and this play. Kobayashi says that he did not work with Kuga often but did work with Hirata on many occasions as part of the drama club, and that he was a very nice person with a "strict and slightly serious" personality who was a good fit to be Kuga's husband.

Although I can only experience it through machine translation, I cannot overstate how valuable Kobayashi's blog is to anyone like myself who has a fascination with Toho's "golden age". Although he worked mostly for stage, not screen, Kobayashi acted alongside many of the actors who I frequently mention on this blog and he is still very much alive and writing about his recollections of his experiences. Here he is as an extra in an NHK drama. He states that this photo was taken where the famous Godzilla statue in Shinjuku is today.

I wish there was more I could give you, because to me it's really unexpected that Hirata would even be in something like this. I think it speaks to a lot of confidence to be able to act the lead role in a four-hour play that ran for over three months - and not just any play but an adaptation of The Human Condition, of all things. I'm going to try to dig up contemporary reviews or mentions, because there has to have been some in film periodicals from the time, but I'm not sure how much luck I'll have on that front. In any case, there may be updates to this post or further, separate posts on the topic in the future.

^_____

1 I have a vague notion that he may have done some stage acting at a May Day festival at some point around the late 1940s or early 1950s, but I haven't looked deep enough into that to be able to say for certain. The Human Condition was, in any case, probably his first "real" stage acting gig.