The Epicene Butcher and Other Stories (for Consenting Adults)

Third World Television (Johannesburg)
The Epicene Butcher and Other Stories for Consenting Adults, Brighton Festival, May 2014

Often cited as the precursor for Manga, Kamishbai is an ancient Japanese form of street theatre; traditional storytellers cycled from village to village telling stories using hand-drawn cartoon boards.

This fun and moving performance (The Epicene Butcher and Other Stories) uses illustrations and verve of language to invigorate visual and verbal storytelling.
The tales, which are firmly for adults, run the gamut from the silly to the sublime: from pornography to epic poetry; cannibalism to the dream world of cats.
Using simple but beautifully drawn images, Jemma Kahn conjured a frame-by-frame comic strip, a sort of live Manga cartoon that blends the traditional with the contemporary.
This event was a cross-cultural theatrical 'mash-up' that is rooted in children's street theatre but was definitely not for children!

Original Kamishbai storyboards

A Street performer of Kamishbai