Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Shunga Alert!
Gumbo and Book of Shadows.
Genre: Theatre
Venue: Underbelly
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Educative as well as hugely entertaining, this show has elements of saucy British seaside postcards, but through Japanese experience.
Review
Gumbo have forged a name for themselves world wide for their innovative, daring and naughty work, gathering multiple awards at any Fringe Festivals. I first encountered them at Colchester Fringe, instantly drawn to their surreal, offbeat style that incorporates Japanese culture with an enquiring theatricality. Shunga Alert is no exception. We join Mame, an emerging artist and his friends, Pleasure the sex doll and Pain the AI virtual doll, as they try to create the series shunga of all time. Translating to ‘spring pictures “, the shunga is a form of traditional Japanese erotic art, popular during the Edo period, at odds with the conservative values of the time. Little has changed, as there are strict laws in Japan. For example, pornography is forbidden to show penetrative sex, but the populace have found innovative ways around this! Colonialism post World War Two is here represented by Jonny America, who orders shunga art to be censored.
It’s a wild, hilarious ride, physical theatre in perfect synergy with handmade cut outs and shadow puppetry engaging with the performers. And the energy of the performers, Kayo Tamura, (also the director), Ryo Nishihara, and Nono Miyasaka, remains at an extremely high level throughout. They are matched by the excellent narration and imagery created by Art Designer Seri Yanai and writer/performer Daniel Wishes. The show is definitely adults only, and the art is explicit, but its highly informative. The art is beautiful and historic and the insecurity, especially of Japanese men, is tenderly portrayed. Falling birth rates in Japan are a concern of Elon Musk, apparently, and the troupe attack this with vigour and style.
It’s a refreshingly original piece of work, that plays with style and content in a particularly Eastern way. Hand made surtitles enable a company for whom the majority have English as a second language, get their message heard. I highly recommend this, and their other show, Are You Lovin’ It, which satirises the globalisation of food chains, for their unique story telling skills. Their core values of examining Japanese values and hypocrisy are strong, along with calling out Western ideals, but always in a fun, hugely entertaining style.
