Abe's The Man Who Turned into a Stick received very little attention outside of Japan. Although it was not a hit with the traditional theatergoing crowds in Japan, the play did receive an outstanding reception, given its surreal and avant-garde themes, settings, and style, as well as it having its main production held in Abe's small studio that seated only sixty people. Despite the fact that the play was used by Abe at his Kobo Abe Studio "as a studio exercise by the most junior members of the troupe," it still played to over one thousand spectators.

Donald Keene, writing the Introduction to Abe's play The Man Who Turned into a Stick, states, "The play was a popular as well as an artistic success." Keene then relates, in a more general statement about Abe, that besides being respected as a writer

Abe's commitment to the theatre...