Kiss Around Pass Around – Que Sera Passera – Not Quite Noh

There are some lovely features to this production – a clean original music track, gentle yet energetic movement about the stage by creator/performer Yanomi, and requests for help from audience members always preceded with the question “Are you kind”? (Everyone in our audience answered “Yes”.) There is a beautifully crafted leather purse that Yanomi sports, and a lovely leather suitcase home for the kitten/sparrow-like character “Kissaropassaro”, or whatever we hope the name of this sweet Caliban-like creature to be. And it’s tempting, too, to look for historical and cultural precedents to this international work—perhaps a little Noh or Kabuki face paint and costume, a Bunraku puppet quality to the movement of the questing “QueseraPassera”, perhaps even a hint of Tokyo TV cartoons. It’s a soft and kind performance.

But ultimately a weak story line lets down this well-crafted multi-media work. “Kiss Around Pass Around’s” north-south-east-west quest for her father (daddy) isn’t very convincing nor compelling. I felt no strong sense of what she and her quest were about and felt little identification with her, except for her desire to try. Maybe you’ll feel differently.

Yanomi’s requests for assistance from audience members were non-threatening, though she gave an occasional poke. She fishes for minor articles of clothing, and asks for help reading the large (tea?) leaves left by her mommy as clues about her daddy. Yanomi works hard and skilfully delivers this work, and I am left hoping there will be a sequel with a more compelling story line driven by deeper Japanese/International traditions like those of Murakami or Kurosawa. Asking too much of a Fringe production? I don’t think so. The promotional material suggests the character in this performance might steal your heart: perhaps, but it might not steal your mind. Go if you like kittens.