Before this show we were given a sheet telling the story that were about to see. Kaguya Hime (Moon Princess) is one of Japan’s oldest fairy tales and concerns an old couple (It’s always an old couple isn’t it? How old do they mean? No-one is ever in the full of their life in fairy tale land) find a baby girl in a bamboo stalk and take her to raise her as their own. She grew to be a beautiful young lady but rejected all the young men who tried to chat her up, saying she was from the moon and must soon return. Her father (remember, the poor old wood cutter at the start?) now has enough money to hire soldiers to try and stop her leaving but an angel comes and puts them to sleep and takes the princess away.
But enough of that. Once you get in it is hard to find any relation between the show and the story as we have an opening that could be the placement of the moon daughter into the bamboo done in a ballet style with music appearing to be a collaboration between Philip glass and Yoko Ono (and all done on stage). Next we have three young (tenish) girls come and do a dance with cherry blossoms (time passing), then another ballet, then the three youngsters back for some play and a party. Finally there is a conversation between the princess and the angel before she leaves.
While it all looked very pretty and the girls danced very cutely, the music, while spookily atmospheric, was setting my teeth on edge and I feel it may have been better to have a card with chapters at the start of each section. Still if you just come for some cute youngsters dancing about on stage, then I can definitely recommend this. Considering the number of children in the audience and the few protests from them, it is obviously captivating for the kids.
Visit the Fringe website for bookings details.