DasSHOKU SHAKE! in Darwin Festival
Photo by Vikk Shayen
DasSHOKU SHAKE! Yumi Umiumare & Theatre Group GUMBO
Get ready to be shaken and stirred!
Created by butoh punkess Yumi Umiumare, Japan’s legendary Theatre Group GUMBO and three of Melbourne’s shock-toy acolytes (known as the DasSHOKU triangle) this is one psychedelic, cross-cultural, lost-in-translation, emo shake-up. DasSHOKU SHAKE! is the fourth work in the award-winning DasSHOKU repertoire, the unique culture-crushing dementia that has been recognised by audiences in sell-out seasons around the world since 1999. Inspired by the devastating earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan in 2011, this latest chapter bursts out of the earth to assault the senses. In it Umiumareʼs punk ingénue (a character that wouldn’t be out of place in the ‘60s cult series Monkey) joins a troupe of wanderers traversing the world and experiencing its shaky ground as a series of hell-on-earth fantasies. On the way there’s music, movement, merriment and just a touch of madness.
Recent Green Room Award winner for Innovation in Cabaret, DasSHOKU SHAKE! is a timeless myth told with a healthy mix of black satire GUMBO’s trademark bewildering absurdist humour. It fuses the intensity of butoh with all the entertainment of great cabaret for a weird and wonderful Festival experience from an incredible team of performers.
" It is a riot… black humour, absurd juxtapositions and occasional poignancy with skills and thrills.” Adelaide Advertiser
"Watching Umiumare dance butoh is like watching a stainless steel mannequin ram a knife into a toaster." Vibewire Artistic Director & Choreographer Yumi Umiumare Co-Director KayoTamura
Performers Yumi Umiumare, Helen Smith, Willow J, Harrison Hall, Kayo Tamura, Nono Miyasaka & Ryo Nishihara Dramaturgy Matt Crosby Set Design Ellen Strasser Sound Design Dan West Costume Design Kiki Ando & Theatre Group GUMBO Original Lighting Design Tom Willis Additional Lighting Design for Darwin Tony Moore Photography Vikk Shayen (Australia)& Masami Kikuchi (Japan)