THE JAPANESE TROUPE

Kumara Times, Issue 2577, 8 December 1884, Page 2

THE JAPANESE TROUPE

Friday proved a more favourable night as regards the weather for turning out to witness the really marvelous performances of Mr Woodward’s troupe, and the front and back seats of the Adel phi Theatre was fairly filled on the occasion. Had the general public been fully cognizant of the wonderful

character of the performances, the Theatre would probably have been crammed. The Kmnara Brass Band again heralded the hour for commencing the display. The company have with them two excellent musicians who discourse sweet strains on the harp, flute, and piccolo, to suit the character of the feats. The performances commenced, as on the previous night, with the wonderful antics by old Bungaro and his son with the model of a cask, both ends of which are necessarily out for the purposes of the agile acts of the son. First Bungaro lies down on his back on a table or stand, then, taking the barrel balances it upwards on his feet, throws it up, twists it about like a top, makes it revolve with the rapidity of a steam circular saw, throws it up again, and, catching, makes it revolve rapidly on the big toe of either right or left foot, at pleasure; then balances it successively on one, two, and three wooden buckets, throwing buckets and casks all in the air, youthful attendants catching the buckets in their fall, and Bungaro meanwhile catching the cask again on his feet. Then the sturdy youth of over lOst. appears ; he gets on the cask whilst it is being balanced by his father; crawls inside and outside again without disturbing the nerve of the father or the equilibrium of the cask, and, finally balances his body and feet in the aitover the cask. An acrobatic song and dance by Mr Matthews, the tallest member of the company, follows, and he shows his great agility by displacing a hat from its ten-feet-high position with a kick of his foot. But this and several other astonishing acts of the company have been previously noticed by us. The most wonderful and daring performance is doubtless that of Bungaro and his son with the large screen, in the form of an old-fashioned Tudor window, with bars, but covered with tissue paper. The screen itself is about 10ft. by 4ft. and weights about 445»5. After balancing this in various ways, and twisting it round, Bungaro’s son (Kin Kitchi), over 10st, gets on the screen (still balanced by his father, who is only 9st. odd), climbs a step or two, takes out some of the bars, and creeps through the aperture thus made on to the other side of the screen ; then, climbing another step or two takes out more bars, and crawls through another aperture, to the opposite side of the screen again ; then mounts to the top and balances his feet in the air till they touch the curtain of the stage. The audience could not restrain their breathless silence during the performance of these extraordinary acts, an immense applause burst forth as the youthful acrobat waived his hand or his parent his fan on the completion of each feat. But it is not all over; in Kitchi’s descent he places his foot in a noose of a rope at a top coiner of the screen, and with the other foot purchased against the side of the screen stands out in mid-air (as many of our readers may have seen in a sketch in some of the windows) the young man and the screen all the while being balanced by the wonderful old man Bungaro. His safe descent on to terra firma is succeeded with the most rapturous applause of the audience. The whole concluded with lightning tumbling by the company, it being difficult to count the flip-flap somersaults each one made, so rapidly were some of them executed. The company expect to perform one more night in Kuraara on their return from the south (probably next Monday) when all persons who have not yet witnessed these wonderful acrobats should not lose the opportunity of doing so.