KAGUYAHIME, THE MOON PRINCERSS Theatre Workshop to 29 December.

Edinburgh

KAGUYAHIME, THE MOON PRINCESS
by Robert Rae

Theatre Workshop To 29 December 2001
Runs 1hr 25min No interval

TICKETS 0131 226 5425
Review Timothy Ramsden 22 December

A beautiful rarity among Christmas shows, performed with energy and conviction.Edinburgh's Theatre Workshop is developing an identity as an inclusive performance venue, while its Christmas shows have drawn on cultures around the world. The Moon Princess is a story at least 1400 years old and apparently well-known to Japanese children.

Director Robert Rae includes among his influences not only traditional Japanese styles of Noh (serious) and Kabuki (popular) theatre, but the modern Theatre Taihen, a dance company of disabled performers.

Should that seem a strange or patronising idea, it takes only a few minutes of Kaguyahime for its all-ability, inclusive company to weave a spell that you won't find in many larger shows. The early tenderness with which a childless woodcutter and his wife discover the infant Kaguyahime in the rushes, the comedy and trickery of the five princes who try to cheat on the tough missions they are sent on in wooing the beautiful young woman, and, overwhelmingly, the sensual beauty of performance, music and lighting as the Moon reclaims the daughter it had sent to earth before she can fall in love; all these combine in creating a unique and entrancing world. It justifies even the comparatively long-haul of nearly 90 interval-free minutes.

In place of an interval there's a sudden mid-point eruption of humour and audience involvement from Raymond Short's Oukai. This down-to-earth pantomimism is the far pole from Robyn Hunt's silent, almost reclusive Kaguyahime. She needs to do nothing; the very fame of her beauty sets off action, and she is never properly seen until the very final moment when, taken back by her celestial parent, her face is projected on to the moon that coolly shines across the stage.

Workshop's other tradition involves education, and in place of most theatres' foyer photos of the cast, there's an excellent display of local children's art inspired by the story, and due to be sent to Edinburgh's twin city of Kyoto. Imagine a series of Japanese paintings inspired, say, by Sleeping Beauty, and both the imaginative and cross-cultural potential is clear.

Taketori, Bamboo Cutter: John Hollywood
Ouna, his Wife: Ysabel Collyer
Kaguyahime: Robyn Hunt
Prince Otomo: Hannah Logan
Prince Abe: Jim Ferguson
Prince Ishitsukuri: Anu Kumar
Prince kuramoci: Jim McSharry
Prince Isonokami/Oukai: Raymond Short
Emperor/Moon: Yusuke Koisumi
Jam/Narrator: Claire Cunningham
Kem: Helen Porter
Pong/Uchimaro: Shane Connolly

Director: Robert Rae
Designer: Gordon Davidson
Lighting: Dave Toneri
Costume: Christine Ross
Music: Helen Porter
Puppeteer: Shane Connolly
Fight coach: Raymond Short

2001-12-29 11:10:12