Likay Aka Oni Red Demon: Encounter and Exchange of Intercultural Performance

摘要

This paper investigates the possibilities of cultural exchange between a Japanese contemporary play and a Thai Likay performance. This paper focuses on the process of inter-Asian cultural exchange between Thai and Japanese in terms of East-meets-East dialogue, cultural flows beyond the boundaries of two countries and cultural issues in the art of the theatre. Furthermore, it illustrates the process by which Pradit Prasatthong, a Thai playwright, adapted Aka Oni, a Japanese play-script in his work after he had collaboratively worked with Hideki Noda in the original version of Aka Oni in 1997. This paper also exposes Japanese audiences to Likay, a Thai traditional-popular theatre form. Prasatthong, the director of Likay Aka Oni, a new version of Noda’s play, has endeavoured to make a contribution to intercultural communication and to produce a performance that can be appreciated by both Thai and Japanese audiences.