One of the shows that Natasha was very keen to see during fest was Sadako. I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about it, but I had heard good things and after watching the brilliant performance of Mouche, I was a little more open to the idea of a puppet show.
The play is based on the true story of Sadako, a little girl who was two years old when Hiroshima was bombed. Though she initially seems unaffected by the blast, ten years later it is discovered that she has leukemia as a result of the radiation that she was exposed to.
The show is an incredibly sad one, delving into the short life of a girl and her struggle against an illness that she can do nothing about. It goes beyond just looking at Sadako’s story to see how her disease affects her family and her friends, their relationships and their beliefs. The one thing that keeps Sadako going is a beautiful legend about origami cranes. The legend goes that if you fold 1000 origami cranes, you will be granted one wish.
Using puppets was a powerful way to portray Sadako’s story – it opened the story up to audiences of all ages. Even if children could not understand what was happening, they could enjoy the brilliant puppetry that the show presented. It also gave the play a very distinctive and very Japanese feel despite the actors being played by South Africans. It introduced bright imagery to a bleak situation, and I thought that it was wonderful.
However, despite the beautiful puppetry and the work that had put into setting the scene for the play, I found it very difficult to sit through. This was for a number of reasons. First of all, I do not believe that the play is suitable for young children. They ended up getting bored, kicking seats, dropping things, making noise and just generally being distracting. Secondly, I found the play to be a bit long. This pertains to the issue of having small children who get quickly bored, but it goes beyond that. I felt that the story was dragged out for too long to try and illicit an emotional response from the audience. I do not think that it was necessary. The story itself is so touching that we do not need to see each and every detail of Sadako’s deterioration played out to be touched. Finally, I found the subject matter hit quite close to home. The same way that I struggle to watch episodes of Greys that involve brain tumours, I found it difficult to watch the way that Sadako’s parents deal with the disease, as I know that my parents were going through the same thing with my sister. Sure, it wasn’t leukemia, and sure it worked out for the best. But it still plucked at my heart strings, and I found it difficult to watch.
Sadako is an incredibly beautiful, powerful, painful story. If you are the kind who cries in plays, expect to. If you have young children that you are considering taking to this play, don’t. Otherwise, I recommend that everyone see the play or at the very least read about Sadako’s story – it can be found online and there is a book dedicated to her entitled “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes”.
My 4th grade class read the book. It was a good book and I never forgot it. I agree that it wouldn't be for young children though. I didn't know it was a play.
ReplyDeleteA group in Cape Town turned it into a play a couple of years back and performed it at the National Arts Festival this year.
ReplyDelete