Fringe is a very busy month for local Perth theatre makers, and independent company The Last Great Hunt are right in the thick of it. They have five different shows at Fringeworld this year, three of which, Yoshi’s Castle included, are premiering.
Proliferation can be hazardous, however, and while Yoshi’s Castle is a lovely piece of theatre with the strength and grace characteristic of experienced theatre makers, it does struggle to justify its own telling.
Two half-sisters meet for the first time after their father dies. One is the product of an affair and has never met the man, the other grew up with him. They are opposite personalities, each intensely unsure of the other, and the show explores this negotiation of a new and obligatory relationship, defined by the uncomfortable matter of the will.
One sister, Yoshi, (Adriane Daf) has been living in Japan and the show uses animation and music to capitalise on this candy-clad aesthetic, juxtaposing it against the stuffy home environment of Tilly, the more conservative sister (Arielle Gray).
Some deeper points are touched on over the course of the performance, such as the actions of their father surrounding the affair, but the script stops short of delving. Yoshi’s Castle is a deft exercise in storytelling, the perfect Fringe show, but not a play that indulges in any sort of exploration of the human psyche. Instead it’s a study in maintaining integrity in the face of awkwardness, a show about two people struggling with first impressions and attempting to get to know each other despite themselves. Their father’s will is a powerful overshadowing presence, and an important device in drawing together two characters that would otherwise repel one another.
The show is militantly tight, very strong and well structured – the mark of a group of professional and highly skilled theatre makers. While the story struggles with relevance, and the ending bumbles up inevitably, there is an fluidity to the character details, which emerge naturally as the play develops. The relationship moves from the extremely awkward to the slightly more comfortable, with all the jagged stops in between to make the exploration interesting. There are clichés, and Tilly’s uptight manner is under-explored and overplayed in script and performance, but there’s still a strain of emotional intelligence to the through-line of both characters.
Yoshi’s Castle is not the sort of profoundly moving experience that will stick inside your head, but it is a very enjoyable hour of theatre from some highly skilled theatre-makers.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Written and devised by: Gita Bezard
Performed and devised by: Adriane Daff and Arielle Gray
