'Mr. YooWho's Holiday!' can be part of yours

Mr. YooWho brings fun to Japanese folk story

Moshe Cohen is a world traveler in his actual and onstage life. The internationally renowned clown, actor, performer and teacher, who has played in more than 2,000 shows in 40 countries over the past 30 years, is in San Francisco this holiday season to star in an absurdist Japanese folktale with Western vaudeville tendencies called "Mr. YooWho's Holiday!"

Mind you, the show at the Theatre of Yugen has nothing to do with the Judeo-Christian holiday season. Rather, it takes advantage of Cohen's hilarious, well-traveled clown character, Mr. YooWho, who goes on holiday to the famed Himawari Shrine to be inspired by the legendary Celestial Being Himawari. But things don't go as planned. Himawari seems nowhere to be found. Instead, Mr. YooWho must contend with the shrine's caretaker, a demanding and elderly curmudgeon, played by Noh actress Jubilith Moore, who steers him from one comic routine to the next, much like an all-powerful god.

"It is a common convention in Noh," explains Sheila Berotti, the show's director, "that the gods will be in disguise." Berotti says she, Cohen and Moore came up with the caretaker-turned-god story by combining Cohen's love of Euro-Kyogen clowning, Moore's expertise in Noh and her own wish to see these dramatic forms threaded together. Berotti says the combination of ancient Japanese Noh drama and Kyogen comedy "appeals to me on a physical and intellectual level, as well as artistically. I like the use of exaggeration in Kyogen and the subtlety of Noh. They are stylized both physically and vocally, and I think it is great training for any actor."

The show is meant for the entire family. Cohen is a master of summoning inter-age laughter, and Berotti has come up with some clever interactive elements, such as the basket of Japanese proverbs attendees pick from as they enter the theater, which get used later on. Her favorite proverb: "The bat hanging upside down laughs at the topsy-turvy world."

"Mr. YooWho's Holiday!" plays at Theatre of Yugen (2840 Mariposa St. in San Francisco) 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $15 in advance through (800) 838-3006 or the Brown Paper Tickets website and $18 at the door. Tickets for children under 12 go for $10.

Behind the mask