As the audience enters the theatre, they notice that there is very little set up on the stage. A few lights and boxes filled with puppets, rest on the floor. Behind, a giant white screen hangs in the air. Two performers enter and sit on the floor in full view of the audience. The stage lights fade out until it is completely dark. The screen lights up, the music plays and a magical experience begins.
During the one-hour performance, the two puppeteers manipulate hundreds of shadow puppets, one after the other, simultaneously performing all of the various characters' voices, and creating a fantasy world unlike anything ever seen before.
Mochinosha takes the ancient art form of shadow play and actively adapts it with modern storytelling and editing techniques from movies and animation. They create novel effects never before possible in conventional shadow theatre. Their shadow puppets are each unique and all made by hand. They use between 200 to 300 different shadow puppets per show. Their work delivers a message embracing this era to modern audiences, piercing the analogue forever and using the power of fantasy.
Mochinosha's work and their "live analogue movies" have been staged around the world.