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It’s odd in a fascinating and wonderfully wacky way
EVERYTHING about the show now playing at the Market Theatre is most unusual. The oddity starts with the title, The Epicene Butcher and Other Stories for Consenting Adults. Then there’s the presentation, which isn’t theatre as much as storytelling, using a series of pictures to illustrate the sentences. The pictures themselves are vivid and colourful, cartoon-like and highly detailed. Japanese music plays in the background while the tales are told in a quirky and intense way, using only accents and tonality to bring the characters to life. It’s odd in a fascinating and wonderf...
My Mzansi
The Epicene Butcher And Other Stories For Consenting Adults is on until April 21 at the Barney Simon Theatre at The Market. Brought to our shores is a 12th century Japanese art of storytelling known as kamishibai (directly translated as “paper story”), colourfully used to tell seven stories as diverse as that of Nelson Mandela, to those with a bit of hentei, all in one show. Co-written by Gwydin Beynon and Jemma Kahn, who also shares the stage with performer Klara van Wyk, known as the “Chalk Girrthe show has captivated audiences from Japan to Amsterdam, recapturing this age-...
Picture Perfect
Ancient storytelling technique translated brilliantly for modern audiences THE age restriction for this stage show makes it sound like a film, which is fitting in the sense that the visual aspect of the piece is what makes the biggest impact. Performer Jemma Kahn is a practitioner of the ancient Japanese storytelling art of Kamishibai (“paper story”), which involves someone verbally relating a story while working their way through a sheaf of stark, attractive artworks — in much the same way as a modern storyboard artist will set up a tale to be acted out later. The production has...
Telling Stories Japanese Style
Kamishibai — the ancient Japanese art of storytelling (the word literally means paper play) beloved by children on the Far Eastern island since the 1930s — is an art form sneaking on to the South African stage, courtesy of Jemma Kahn and her production The Epicene Butcher and Other Stories for Consenting Adults JE1VIMA Kahn spent a year teaching English in Japan, discovering an untilthen unacknowledged appreciation for what she now thinks of as her South African-ness. Trying to fit into a different way of life, she found herself apologising a lot for not understanding or being able to expr...
The Market Theatre Foundation relevant to the Arts and Photography in this country
The Market Theatre Foundation is a designated Cultural Institution with 3 distinct units which together make an important contribution to the performing arts and photography in this country. The Market Theatre always has been, and continues to be, South Africa’s most relevant theatre and has won 296 national and 15 international theatre awards. Historically the productions dealt with political issues. Currently they focus on topical social issues. As a result the Market’s productions continue to inform and entertain theatre-loving audiences nationally and internationally. The Marke...
Goliaths launch a space for Davids
Goliath and Goliath started out as a small company but the punch Iine-slinging comedy collective is shaping up to be a future giant of the funny business, writes IT USED to be a running joke that standup comedians Donovan David Goliath (his real name) and Jason Goliath were brothers. They’re not. Then new comedian Nicholas Goliath burst on to the scene and we half-expected even more comedians to claim the surname. Veteran comedian Mark Banks jokingly called the Goliaths the Spur restaurant franchise of comedy on account of how there seemed to be one on every comedy bill. Goliath and Goli...
