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Photo by Matt Houck/Contributed photo
Ember Dahl as Tarao craddles the baby dragon Yoshi.
Believing in dragons:
'The Emperor's Dragon' brings Ancient Japan to MHCC
The Advocate
From the beginning, “The Emperor’s Dragon” transports audience members to ancient Japan with carefully selected music and a simple, yet detailed set.
However, the audience finds out almost immediately that the set isn’t just a set. The backdrop is used for shadow effects, showing things to the audience in a new perspective. This technique does a brilliant job of setting up the audience up for the story to come. Meanwhile, a narrator does a voice-over that is so well done it might have been an actor from a karate film, accenting the tone while not coming off as chintzy.
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The plot revolves around a 10-year-old boy named Tarao as he attempts to return a baby dragon to his mother, dodging armies and his uncle.
Ember Dahl is great as Tarao. Though she’s a female playing a male, a fairly difficult task, she manages to carry herself like a boy and become the character; she, or he, is entirely relatable for a young audience.
Part of this ability to relate includes Tarao’s interactions with Uncle (Ben Hare). Hare manages to turn the initially harsh Uncle into a comedic, misunderstood character. After all, it’s hard to dislike a character who attempts to charm chickens into quieting down with a potion.
The characters are developed throughout the play with a clever dialogue that will be easily understood by children. And the young audience will find many opportunities to laugh, participate and have fun throughout the play.
One of the things that will catch the children’s attention is the puppet Yoshi. Though just a puppet, Yoshi is one of the biggest stars in the play. While it might be difficult as an actor to sacrifice one of your arms to hold a puppet, none of the actors handling Yoshi show it. Instead, each actor makes Yoshi come to life, particularly Dahl, whether it’s with movement or sound.
Overall, “The Emperor’s Dragon” is a fast-paced show that contains a good amount of action. It’s bound to keep children and adults entertained with clever, well-written dialogue and empowering morals.
And when the lights come back on, audience members might be surprised at just how easy it was to be transported to ancient Japan and how quickly they might want to go back for another view.
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