Friday, September 5, 2008

Mimibunko's Show


I know I've been putting "A Puppet Show" up on stuff...like the flier you can download from this blog...for the Japanese language show that runs in between my two shows. But now that I watched the dress rehearsal, I can report that it has a name. It is "When the Riceball Fell" and it's quite a nice show. Yes, it is done entirely in Japanese but it's easy to understand even if you don't know what they are saying.
It follows an almost Grimm's fairy tale format of a nice person who finds himself in an unusual situation but is polite, friendly and kind. He is given a reward. A not-so-nice neighbor hears the nice fellow tell his wife about it and decides to do what the nice man did just to get the reward. He handles himself greedily, forcefully and impolitely. Naturally, things don't work out how he planned.
If you do decided to brave the language barrier and see it...pay attention to how the puppets are put together...I've never seen a show like it. The human characters are on rods strapped to the front of the puppeteer who stands upright and manipulates the character's hands in a Bunraku style. Her face is covered by a hood but you can see her. They also have a neat scene changing trick to watch for. It runs at 2pm both days.
Also...don't miss Momotaro at 11 and 4 on Saturday and 12:30 and 3:30 on Sunday!
See you all tomorrow!

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