Review: Manga (Fringe 2011)

Reviewed by  Estelle Rosen

(As a long time admirer of Japanese culture, my visit to Japan many years ago remains the most memorable trip ever.)

MANGA from Belzébrute Productions is the second part of their trilogy of vengeance. Last year they presented part one, Shavirez Gypsy of the Seas.

The Upstage Interview: The Manga company (Fringe 2011)

Think of it as Japanese Québecois

Upstage Host Eric Sukhu and Contributor Stephanie Breton spoke with Caroline Fortin and Eric Desjardins  about Belzébrute’s production of  MANGA presented as part of 2011 Fringe Festival. Below is an abridged version of the interview, edited by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-Chief.

 

UPSTAGE

Last year, you were on Upstage for Shavirez. Tell us about MANGA.

 

MANGA

The idea first came to us when we were brainstorming about Shavirez. We said maybe the next one could be Japanese. We were animated by this idea so we started the creation process, The real challenge was to put a comic book (called manga in Japan) on stage. Then we decided to add one more challenge – play it in Japanese!

It’s not real Japanese; mostly inspired by sounds and words but sometimes if you pay close attention, you can hear some French words, some English words. Think of it as Japanese Québecois.