At one point in "Yama," two actors become foxes just by pulling their conical straw hats down over their faces to give them pointy snouts. It's an idea the play's director, Andrew Wakatsuki-Robinson, got from headgear he saw at the ancient Yama-dera Temple in northern Honshu's Yamagata Prefecture — a region whose folk tales form the basis of this work.
"At first I just wanted one hat for a scene involving a monk," he said. "Then I used them for the foxes, and later one became a basket."
Creative use of props is characteristic of the 29-year-old New Zealand native who has been performing and directing in Japan since 2006, and who explained how, in this staging, cast members change costumes or use simple props like those hats to play multiple roles.
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