BONUS REVIEW - The Shakuhachi Quest

Fringe Description: Musical · Tear-Jerker · Poetic

I have to admit that I love instruments like the shakuhachi a lot, and so I was definitely looking forward to this show. It was even better than I expected.

This production has the storyteller (and sometime musician) Jim Sands and the highly versatile and accomplished musician Michel Vles on stage. They work together seamlessly combining prose and music. I would have been happy with a show of either on its own, so to get both elements working together so well is magical.

The story weaves together many themes: the fragility of life, the gift of recognizing that life is short, the gift of a friend with a huge capacity for friendship, the history of the shakuhachi in Japan, the primal necessity of music, and more. 

By the end of the show, you will feel as if you knew Dan Meichel, whose life is a major focus of this piece. So many points in this piece that I just love, but one is seeing a basket-wearing shakuhachi player (at times they played that way in Japan so as to block out the other senses). 

By Lois Patterson