[2014051] Epicene Butcher
Third World Television @ Holden Street Theatres – The Arch
6:30pm, Sun 23 Feb 2014
A small audience of only a dozen-or-so assembled for this performance of Epicene Butcher, and most resisted the urging of door staff to sit down the front; not me, though, and my urging got a few other people to come up front too. As a reward, our assistant for the evening – the gorgeous Miss Chalk, wearing cheeky sunglasses and a cheekier short skirt, handed out Chupa Chups to those friendly enough to come up front – mine was Strawberry & Cream.
On the surface, this should be a pretty straightforward show: South African performer Jemma Kahn presents a series of short stories in kamishibai, a pictorial form of storytelling that originated in 12th Century Japan. But whilst kamishibai is certainly a different style of theatre than that which I’m used to, what really made this show stand out was the physical delivery of the seven stories. Kahn orates as she draws cards from a wooden frame; all eyes focus on the contents of the frame (and not her garish pink ensemble with hairy leggings that lean heavily on decora). Cards are often part-drawn, exposing a new panel while leaving much of the previous card visible; at times it felt like reading a comic book or manga, but with much better narration.
Starting out with the fable-esque Eriko and The Carp, the subject matter (and tone) veers wildly, yet never feels like too big a jump; Mario’s Lament was a poignant look at Mario’s never-ending quest to save Princess Peach from Bowser. A South African Story referenced Mandela as well as Kahn’s own travels through broken Japlish. A silent piece covering recent disasters in Japan was ruthlessly efficient at tugging the heartstrings. There’s musings on the dreams of cats. But the title piece, Epicene Butcher, was far and away the best story: a twisting erotic tale with wonderful pacing and a devilish demeanour, with more than a hint of Greenaway.
Since Kahn manually controlled the movement of her story cards in the wooden frame that acts as her stage, her ability to move around was limited; and yet the memory I have of her performance is undeniably physical in nature. Through wonderful voice control, and precise little gestures with her head and hands, she created a presence that is far, far bigger than a set of A3-ish cards. Miss Chalk’s presence is also cartoonishly larger-than-life, as she covered for Kahn’s card-changing between stories by proudly poking her gorgeous arse at us as she bent over in an exaggerated fashion whilst writing the introduction for the next story on her blackboard.
I loved this show, I really did… and that’s not just the titillation of the buttock-curves talking. Kamishibai is a fascinating style of presentation (it’s easy to see it as the ancestor to manga, comics, and even PowerPoint), and the stories (written by Kahn and Gwydion Beynon) were all genuinely entertaining. But behind the loud and gaudy costuming was an absolutely wonderful performance that completely filled The Arch… even though we spent most of our time focused on a series of cards. Jemma Kahn deserves many plaudits for presenting such an engaging performance, almost through voice alone… then again, even her silence during the piece on Fukushima was somehow made physically engaging, so I don’t know how she did it. Stage magic, I reckon.
Anyway: The Epicene Butcher and Other Stories for Consenting Adults. Absolutely worth seeing.
(51) Epicene Butcher: Gorgeously textured storytelling in an unfamiliar form. Featuring Ms Chalk's beautiful arse. #ff2014 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) February 23, 2014
(Curiously, the above tweet resulted in the only comment of a negative nature that I’ve ever received via Twitter; the person concerned thought my reference to Ms Chalk’s posterior was a little over-the-top. Then he saw the show, and followed up with a message of yeah-I-get-where-you’re-coming-from… which was nice :)