Abstract

This paper focuses on the dynamics of education in the interplay of power and seduction as creatively displayed in Takarazuka Revue's performances re-enacting the major players of the Cold War: USA and Russia (rather than former Soviet Union). Oceans 11 (cosmos troupe, 2019) and Once Upon a Time in America (snow troupe, 2020), on the one hand, and Land of Gods (cosmos troupe, 2017) and Anastasia (cosmos troupe, 2020), on the other hand, lavishly display subtle interactions of longing and belonging, ecstasy and rage, love and betrayal, envy, hatred and passion, while painstakingly building up irresistible tensions between the instances involved in the performative process: actresses, administrators, audiences. The theoretical support is delivered by Robert Greene’s pragmatic elaborations in his seminal works The 48 Laws of Power (1998) and The Art of Seduction (2001): education is never a linear process between a ‘master’ and a ‘disciple’, but an interactive game, governed by the pursuit of joy in overcoming challenges and finding ingenious solutions.