The moment Gabu spoke his first line, I was already smiling. That “Gabu voice” I knew so well from the film, coming right from the stage in front of me. Shido’s voice really is charming. Today, too, was the best.
What is One Stormy Night?
It is a new kabuki work based on the picture book by Yuichi Kimura. Gabu the wolf and Mei the goat are two characters who would normally never become friends.
On a stormy night, the two meet in a pitch-dark hut. It is too dark to make each other out, and with colds and stuffy noses they cannot catch each other’s scent either. With no idea who the other really is, they fall into delighted conversation and hit it off completely. “Same time tomorrow, right here,” they promise, with “one stormy night” as the password for their reunion.
And then, the next day. They meet again and exchange the password, only to see each other clearly for the first time in the daylight and freeze. A wolf and a goat?! But the two are already friends, and from there they push through all sorts of hardships, nurturing a friendship that crosses the boundary of species. It is a moving story, loved across generations, and one of my own favorite picture books.
Shido voiced Gabu in the 2005 film version too, so in my mind, Gabu is Shido. Getting to hear that voice live, on a kabuki stage, made me happier than anything. And this very theatre, the Minamiza, is the birthplace of the kabuki One Stormy Night, first staged here back in 2015.
A stage overflowing with cuteness
A stage in which the cuteness simply would not stop.
Ichitaro’s Mei was even more adorable than I had pictured. Every gesture, every note of her voice was so endearing I could have watched forever; I was completely won over. The other goats were cute too, so cute that wherever I looked, I found myself grinning. Ichitaro’s Instagram during the run was overflowing with cuteness as well, which I could not get enough of.
And above all, Takematsu’s Haku. Those glasses suited him so well, so very cute! He may quietly have been my favorite (laugh). I could not take my eyes off him.
I already knew the story, but knowing it did not stop the tears.
A matcha parfait at Nadaman during the interval
For the interval, I headed to Nadaman, the restaurant inside the Minamiza. I had a matcha ice parfait with a wafer standing up in it, as cooling to look at as it was to eat.
But! Being someone who always lingers too long, I suddenly found myself nearly out of time, and ended up eating it in a rush. I really wanted to savor that parfait more slowly. It is like this every single time, so I would love to finally learn my lesson one of these days (laugh).
In closing
Cuteness, a lovely story, Shido’s voice, and Ichitaro’s Mei. A full, heart-warming afternoon at the theatre.
For a souvenir, I picked up the special-edition One Stormy Night yatsuhashi. The lid was illustrated with the wolf and the goat, and when I opened the box, each piece inside had its own cute print, delighting me right to the very end. Almost too cute to eat, though I love these yatsuhashi, so once I started there was no stopping (laugh).
A story of friendship that crosses species, and the joy of getting to watch it unfold as kabuki. It was a quiet happiness I savored all day.
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