From the award-winning Japanese company behind Shunga Alert and Space Hippo comes a visually striking dark comedy where two puppeteers cast giant shadows to conjure a hilarious occult mystery. Based on a “possibly true” story, the show follows teenage skeptic Vi as she reluctantly teams up with her grandmother—who claims to be a 200-year-old mystic—to uncover a conspiracy of séances, cultists, and missing friends.
Would you mind giving us an insight into what your show/event/performance is?
Book of Shadows is an occult-themed mystery-comedy using cinematic shadow puppetry. The hero is a teenager named Vi, who is sent to live with her grandmother. Her granny claims to be the 19th-century mystic Madame Blavatsky. Together they explore the real world of weird cults, spiritualism and magick in order to track down a group of missing kids.
Tell us about the creative team and the process involved?
We are a creative duo made up of Canadian Daniel Wishes and Japanese Seri Yanai. Daniel writes the script and builds the puppets. Seri draws the storyboards and designs the puppets. Then we perform all the puppetry together. Our shows usually use between 150-400 puppets which we perform like a movie on a large screen.
How does it feel coming to (back to) the Fringe?
Exciting and scary.
With shows from all over the world at the Fringe, what sets yours apart?
Nothing particular comes to mind. It’s just a standard, run of the mill, occult-themed, cinematic, shadow puppet show for adult audiences from Japan, with a tiny frog wizard in it.
On that, is there anything in the production or production team’s backgrounds which influences the way the show is performed or told?
We met each other in 2012 while studying puppetry in Yorkshire. We quickly bonded over a shared interest in real ales and dark esoteric knowledge. Since then, we’ve spent years honing our puppetry skills.
Is there anything specific you’re hoping the audience will take away?
We want the audience to have a great time and leave the theatre feeling empowered and ready to take on the world with an army of demons.
Your Ideal audience is in attendance, who’s watching? Or more importantly – who isn’t…?
We’re hoping the show will appeal to a wide variety of people with different belief systems; Wiccans, Thelemites, Hermetics, Theosophists, Chaos Magicians, Neo-Pagans and of course Normies. I guess who we wouldn’t ideally have in the audience are necromancers who come straight from work. (Please go home and shower first, Necromancers.)
It’s an intense month, so where you’re able, how do you plan to relax, and are there any other shows you intend to see or want to recommend?
We’re want to watch a lot of shows this time. We’re looking forward to seeing Slugs by Creepy Boys, and the Ritual by Steffen Haanes and All the Atoms in the Universe Really Made My Day by the Birdman.
Book of Shadows will perform at Venue 61, Big Belly at Underbelly, Cowgate
Runs: August 5th – August 30th at 18.30pm
Interested in being featured on our Have a Gander page? With many previews and Q&As lined up, we’re always happy to chat about including your show in future articles. Please do get in touch through the contact page to feature in an upcoming ‘Have A Gander’