N A N D A
Acrobaticalists
Just a short while ago, I went with my immediate family to see the group NANDA perform. I had little knowledge of the group, and didn’t know exactly what kind of show I was going to see, aside from my parents describing it as “ninja stuff.” I followed my family into the small, fairly crowded theater, and prepared myself for about an hour or so of serious acrobatic tricks and displays.
NANDA is an “acrobaticalist ninja” group, that performs acrobatic and “ninja” tricks. (Acrobaticalist in not a real word, but it’s been deemed an appropriate word to describe the group) This includes fake fighting, impressive jumps and flips, and juggling, all of which were included in their show.
From my previous experiences with these kinds of circus and acrobatic shows, I thought it was going to be a serious performance, as most (but not all) circus performances are fairly serious, where the performers just display their skills and “wow” the audience.
Then the opening video began playing.
It was like going to a movie, where the opening credits play and let you know who contributed to what. However, in this case, NANDA just used it as a way of saying they did everything (which they did).
After the short opening credits, the video continued with a narrator telling a story of a Jacket that was created before the sun by the ancient ones, which would grant the wearer the power of 10 suns. This nonsense continued for a couple minutes before the four members of NANDA finally made their appearance on stage…wearing fake hair and ridiculous looking beards (they were supposed to be the “ancient ones”). Then, they began to fight over the jacket, with small bits where they moved in “slow-mo.”
After they finished “fighting,” one of them hid the jacket in a silver briefcase (mind you, this is supposed to be taking place in a time before the sun…) while his actions were being narrated. A video then began playing, with the narrator telling of how the ancient jacket traveled through the centuries in the silver briefcase. (They included pictures showing the briefcase in famous pictures, such as a portrait of Napoleon, in which he was holding the briefcase.)
They then showed a short clip with subtitles telling the audience that the new setting will be in a Japanese subway in Tokyo in current time. (They tried spelling “present” multiple times, but eventually just went with “current” time. Then, “like, right now.”) One of the performers came on stage with the briefcase, and was soon followed by the other performers. Then they started fighting over the briefcase. Again. Only this time it was even more ridiculous because they had new technology on their side (and by technology, I mean Nerf guns).
This idea of fighting over a jacket continued through the whole performance, with small sections that involved juggling and invisible guns (and cardboard tanks, and dancing robots, and…the list goes on and on). They also included humorous videos between scenes, such as an ad for the “Time Taker-Upper 3000” for when you need more time to change costumes between scenes and you need something to distract the audience with.
That was only a small amount of the silliness that was contained in their show.
The group NANDA is made up of four men; Misha Fradin, Kiyota and Tomoki Sage, and Chen Pollina. According to the brochure, the roles they each play (in the same order that their names are listed above) are, Agency Man, Other Japanese Man and Japanese Man, and Adventure Man. Their brochure also includes a short (but probably not entirely accurate) background on each of them. For example, in the bio for Kiyota Sage, it says that he “underwent vigorous training for his role as the Japanese businessman from Kyoto…spending hours eating sushi and putting together small electronic components. Kiyota has a photogenic memory for stuff that has happened.” It also says that Chen Pollina “was raised primarily on rice cakes and quinoa,” and well as other ridiculous things. The bios of the other two NANDA members were also written in this ridiculous manner.
They also state in their brochure, under cast & crew, that the “writing, direction, production, music, video, choreography, promotion, slow-motion, facial emotion, [and] wild notions of locomotion” were provided by NANDA. This is just a small example of the humor they incorporated into their whole performance and production.
The name of their performance was called “The Jacket” (because it was about a jacket) that could grant the wearer an incredible and unique power. For example, when one of the members wore the jacket, they had the ability to slow down time, causing the other members to move slowly while they could move normally. When another member was wearing, they had the ability to read minds, even those of the audience. Throughout the performance they choreographed their fighting and movements that fit perfectly with the music and sound effects that were played.
On their website, they stated that, “this [was] the first major run of The Jacket in a larger metropolitan city.”
Overall, my family and I enjoyed the performance and were glad we decided to see them.
NANDA performed at the Broadway Performance Hall in Seattle, Washington from October 6 through the 23, Thursdays through Sundays at 8:00 PM.
For more information on this show (so you'll know where you can see them actually perform instead of reading blogs about their performance), go to their website at www.thejacketshow.com.
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