Ajosshi and the Freaky Japanese Transvestite Mime Love

Dear Readers,

I'd like to apologise for a lack of recent updates. It's been a hectic old time for me starting rehearsals for a new show, whilst beginning a new training regime and going on a diet. It's all go, go, go at the moment and it has meant it all went a bit stop, stop, stop on this end.

Fear not, I'll be doing my best to post more as I get used to my new whirlwind life...

Last Thursday I headed down to the Mapo Arts Center to check out Gamarjobat, the freaky Japanese punk mime artists. It was well worth going to.

The first half consisted of four very different short shows: The Gamarjobat Show, 20 minutes of frantic slapstick and jokes that hardly gives the audience time to breather; The Kettle, a rather touching story of a kettle's attempts to please its ramen loving owner; The Hypnotist, worth watching if only for the best hypnotizing pose ever; and The Tarai, 10 minutes of guitar playing and beer can stacking.

The Tarai was the only mistep in the whole of the performance, whilst every other sequence kept the audience's attention and filled the room with a sense of anticipation, the guitar playing and can stacking didn't really make any sense, contained no mime and wasn't funny. However, the other fifty minutes were downright hilarious.

After a fifteen minute interval it was on to the second half and Gamarjobat's attempt to re-imagine Charlie Chaplin's film "City Lights" on stage...

As a fan of the original film, I was very skeptical as to how two men could pull off a touching story about the love between a blind girl and a little tramp, but they did it. Forty five minutes of hilarity and beauty, they captivated the audience and drew us into their world completely.

Mime isn't for everybody, it takes great suspension of belief and a certain amount of concentration from the audience, you can't just sit back and let things wash over you, you have to fill in the blanks with your own imagination. Some people may think of mime as just being trapped in a box or walking into the wind, but through mime it is possible to create stories capable of capturing even the most cynical person's heart.

If you're open to seeing a bit of mime this autumn, then I urge you to go watch Gamarjobat. It's not everyone's cup of tea, however, if you're in the mood for freaky Japanese transvestite mime love, then you'll be happy you went.