Dad is vis­it­ing Chi­na. He leaves old­er sis­ter Stel­la in charge of the farm. This is a mis­take as she prompt­ly sells it, then scarpers off to Paris to spend the pro­ceeds, leav­ing lit­tle sis­ter Daisy the almost use­less black­ber­ry patch. How­ev­er Daisy is very resource­ful and hard­work­ing. She is deter­mined to buy the farm back before their father returns from Chi­na. Every­thing goes well until Stel­la returns from Paris and wants in on the mon­ey…

Renee Liang has trans­lat­ed and adapt­ed a clas­sic Chi­nese folk tale — The Tale of the Fra­grant Fart­ing Man. She has switched the broth­ers for sis­ters, and set the begin­ning of the sto­ry in Levin. (Well, it’s a love­ly place to Levin in isn’t it?) The farts do not make an appear­ance until after a shock­ing act by Stel­la. This is the cat­a­lyst for Daisy’s gassy empow­er­ment. Each of the actors takes great glee in man­i­fest­ing the farts and it is lots of fun to watch what will hap­pen next.  The set is very much like a pop-up book. Paper props influ­enced by Chi­nese folk art and shad­ow pup­pets com­plete the feel­ing that we are being read a bed­time sto­ry. The musi­cian Adam Ogle, pro­vides the sound track which includes a num­ber of famil­iar musi­cal stings that made the adults in the audi­ence laugh.

Although the sto­ry is not always clear, there is great inge­nu­ity in the way the action plays out.  Billed for ages 7+ I think younger chil­dren who are used to being read sto­ries will have a fine time as well.

  • Part of the 2015 Chi­nese New Year cel­e­bra­tions and the 2015 NZ Fringe Fes­ti­val,  The two fart­ing sis­ters, on at BATS The­atre until 21 Feb­ru­ary 2015.