8.53°C Paul T. Davies reviews Forest Of Truth, staged at the Headgate Theatre.
Following their triumph at the 2023 Colchester Fringe with Are You Loving It, Gumbo, from Osaka, Japan, are back with another madcap, wild comedy. Sometimes their work is hard to describe, and the term bat shit crazy would pretty much encompass it. Performances are over the top, incorporating excellent physical theatre, and audience participation is very much encouraged. They have developed a style of their own, where Eastern theatrical traditions meet Western narratives, and they provide unique insights into our world. Here, the subject matter is true love. We are welcomed into the Forest of Truth, where man and woman ‘fall in love’, but the mythical spirits of the forest have other ideas. It’s as if Hans Christian Anderson has taken acid and time travelled to the Garden of Eden.
The performers, Kayo Tamura, Nono Miyasaka, and Ryo Nishihara, are excellent and have boundless energy. Particularly joyful is the tackling head on of their accents, what Ryo calls Japanese English, but they are understood very well. In a delightful twist, their special guest is Noah Alfred Pantano, an American in Colchester, so in their satire of true love, there are even hints of Madam Butterfly, albeit much raunchier! This Madam is no shrinking violet; her husband doesn’t satisfy her, and she encourages the audience to touch her Japanese nipples, not as filthy as you may think; her hilarious costume negates any offence. (I noted that my husband was invited to the hotel room of all three performers, but that’s another conversation.)
Simply yet effectively staged, director Kayo Tamura keeps the pace frenetic, and many fairy tales and legends are woven seamlessly into the piece, apples being a recurring motif. It’s a satire that focuses exclusively on heterosexual love, and it may be interesting to mix things up a little. But the narratives they are satirising are man meets woman; therefore, true love ensues, and they puncture those illusions with skill. The acting is wildly over the top, but that’s one of the main attractions of this company, who are highly original and entertaining, with never a dull moment.
