Once Upon a Midnight is a Japanese/Australian rock musical. The script is bilingual, featuring seven Japanese performers and seven Australian performers. It follows the adventures of Kelsey Clarke and the warrior doll Nozomi as they journey to the Underground to liberate the monster world from the mysterious Angelica.
The show was first performed at the Kijimuna Festival in Okinawa, Japan, and later appeared as a headline act at the OzAsia Festival in Adelaide, South Australia. It was a collaboration between the Kijimuna Festival, Flinders University Drama Centre and Adelaide Festival Centre.
Synopsis
Kelsey Clarke is very afraid. She is afraid of germs, she is afraid of traffic...even the toaster makes her feel very afraid.
Deep in the Underground, the monsters are afraid too. Angelica, the Blue Fairy, has flown into their world. No longer will the monsters be allowed to terrify unsuspecting children, no longer can they drink blood and dance the night away.
Powerless to confront Angelica, the Tengu — Lord of the Underground — has no choice but to find the world's most frightened child and teach her to confront her fear. For timid Kelsey, this means putting on her best cardigan and plunging headlong into the monster kingdom — from murky swamps to haunted Ghost Roads!
With an enchanted doll and a vegetarian vampire to guide her, Kelsey touches her darker side. But is becoming her own nightmare any better than cowering alone under blankets? Can Kelsey summon the courage to find her true self, face her demons and stand against the magical Angelica? Or will the sun rise forever on a future where only the fearful survive?
Intercultural Significance
Director Catherine Fitzgerald claimed in Rip It Up magazine that Once Upon a Midnight has a metaphorical base "It works on many levels. Is it about a young kid with fear who gets kidnapped by monsters? Or is it something else? Is it about the war on terror? There are a lot of things layered into the story." The show was written in equal parts English and Japanese, with Australian playwright Alex Vickery-Howe working closely with Japanese translator Ken Yamamura. The combination of languages posed interesting challenges. Quoted in Lowdown Magazine, Yamamura said "... the sense of humour is completely different and also the words we use [in English] for the humour [is completely different]. So I translated literally with description and [the Japanese cast] still didn't find it funny so I had to come up with something equivalent to that joke to find the Japanese understanding." Vickery-Howe added "Sarcasm is lost. I offended a lot of people just being myself... it's that Australian thing of saying 'I hate you' but really meaning 'I like you' which is taken literally." Journalist Ursula Beaumont goes on to note that "Targeting teenage audiences with an experience that introduces 'the other' in a fun, positive, familiar way with the monsters crossing the cultural divide, is a refreshing approach to gaining understanding of another culture. What's more, it's a young bi-cultural cast strutting their stuff, making the production a unique work..." Speaking to the Helpmann Academy's Arts Magazine actor Matthew Crook reflected on the experience of working interculturally "Performing Once Upon a Midnight in Japan has been an overwhelming experience and certainly unforgettable. No matter how much or how little we spoke each other's language, I found there was always an indescribable connection."
Critical reception
In his four out of five review "Battle Lines are Drawn", Matt Byrne described the show as a "head-on mix of Japanese and English dialogue and lyrics as the characters alternate languages. Sounds crazy, and sometimes it is. But somehow it works, thanks to its inexhaustible ensemble."
In his enthusiastic review for Rip It Up, Barry Lenny praised Mai Kakimoto for her "standout performance" as Nozomi and described the show as both "superb" and "a high energy, fast-paced work that captures the imagination" noting "influences of Noh, Kabuki, Butoh and even Bunraku in evidence."