Over a stormy sky

The Magic Fundoshi: Sex(ual innuendo) sells

"Lust… Desire... Sex… Underwear?!

The Magic Fundoshi is a saucy comedy made up of three parables poking fun at human frailties and our fleshly instincts...

... The form of Japanese comedy known as Kyogen developed around 1400 as comic interludes between Noh dramas. These classical Japanese kyogen (literally ‘wild words’) provided a dazzling contrast and light-hearted relief from the bleak, slow-moving Noh plays; and to this day, kyogen still has Japanese audiences rolling in the aisles in laughter. Kyogen are delightfully everyday celebrations of human foibles; and lust, sloth, vanity and other human appetites are the stuff of which kyogen is made. The traditional kyogen repertoire features whimsical tales of the Everyman (and woman) – of servants outsmarting their masters and scheming tricksters getting into bizarre screw-ups - always playful, always mischievous, always hilarious."

***
Went to watch The Magic Fundoshi yesterday with Forest, Emu, Mr. Yellow and Ms. Astute. I had little idea what it was about actually, except that the tickets cost me $50, and there was a mini controversy in the papers regarding the lack of adequate warning to minors and guardians over its nude scenes and risque content. I thought it should be a hoot, since, being the mountain tortise I am regarding theatre productions, I've yet to see live nudity being performed on stage.

It must have been a special occasion, because we spotted a few local personalities in the audience. Emu pointed out local director Erik Khoo and local writer Catherine Lim seated a few rows in front of us. Ivan Heng flitted about most conspicuously wearing a lurid pink shirt and black-rimmed glasses, fitted with a cord that he hung around the neck.

Before the show started, director Glen Goei bounded up on stage to give an improv comedy skit. No, really. He started with a disclaimer that there was going to be some nudity and adult themes in the play. Lust, desire, sex, underwear. Well, DUHHH, right? Then he continued with an explanation of his new self-censorship system; an inconspicuous red light hanging at the top of the stage that would switch on whenever nudity was imminent, whereupon the more delicately predisposed among the audience should take it upon themselves to cover their eyes until the offending scene was over. Having reduced the audience to stitches of laughter, he then left the stage for a frenetic taiko drummer to beat the opening music into the first scene. (He really is worth watching too. First time I saw people jumping up and down when taiko drumming)

What can I say; I guess the show did live up to its billing. Act one was a little hard to get the hang of, what with its use of convoluted Victorian-style English dialogue more at home in Shakespearean plays and Indian bureaucratic documents; the plot was a little too stylised and symmetrical (i.e. predictable). Still, the sexual imagery was subtle enough . It might only be my imagination, but I thought the background scenery contained quite a few phallic symbols and depictions of breasts. And the picture of the hummingbird sticking its beak into a flower too, though it was Emu who caught that one. The red light made its first appearance with some hilariously funny shadowplay.

Act two was slightly more daring. The highlight of a simple but hilarious tale of the magic fundoshi, conspicuously reminiscent of 'The emperor's new clothes' parable, was when one of the characters hiked up his ... kimono?.. and bared his buttocks to the audience. From that time on I can bet that most of us watching had problems following the plot. Most likely we're wondering if he would 'zao gng', i.e. let slip his strategically hidden member. And when he turned sideways in dialogue, I thought I could see a corresponding shift in the heads of the audience as they leaned to one side or the other. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything. They'd probably practiced this scene to perfection. Maximum titillisation without actual nudity.

If you thought Act two was lewd.... well... act three would probably be classified as shocking. Having gotten the audience used to the use of the 'red-light', The scene for act three was set early with the use of a string of twenty or so red 'christmas tree' lights as a backdrop. The red light was also perpetually switched on for the entire act. If that didn't warn us of what is to come, then surely the Japanese Torii in the background erected ( pardon the pun) using 3 very curved phallus structures is a very unambiguous indication.
Plotwise, it comes across as the weakest among the 3 stories; seemingly put together only to showcase a number of homoerotic caressing scenes among the cast, and climaxing ( I swear, I the sexual innuendo isn't on purpose!) in the final scene where Wonder Woman, played by Emma Yong in shimmering underwear sans bra, appears before the lascivious priests and pilgrams. She then proceeds to emasculate all of the men with her magic wand, while spouting something or other in a weird tribute to feminism. I asked my friends later and it appears that few of us really heard, understood what she was trying to say. You have to acknowledge that the exposed breasts, tastefully covered as they were with two tiny, strategically placed stars, were a major distraction.

All in all, The Magic Fundoshi is a raunchy, low-brow but funny comedy that doesn't fear to draw laughs by the use of slapstick and sexual innuendo. I pity the 2 kids in the audience, who were understandably very wide-eyed throughout the show.

***

After the show we stopped by at the Pitstop Cafe for some good, old-fashioned fun with boardgames. $10 bought us a 3scoop ice-cream, a drink, and 2 hours of gaming, which the owners kindly let us extend all the way past 1am without charge! Thanks guys! We played a card game involving barnyard animal sounds, and another popular boardgame called Ticket to Ride. A train-building game kinda like Railway Tycoon. Lots of fun and laughter and I really enjoyed myself. I can see that a night out atboard-gaming cafes might soon become a regular night-time activity for me, as substitute for the normal pubbing and clubbing culture(Bleh. No interest, sorry.)

posted by Tempest Blue @ 8:32 PM