In the ancient Japanese picture-based story telling tradition, Kamishibai, the travelling tellers sold sweets to gather in an audience. For this Brighton Festival show, anyone who sat in the front row was given a lolly, one provocatively pre-sucked by the cheeky Chalk Boy (Glen Biderman-Pam). Chalk Boy acted as scene changer and entertainer, silent throughout, writing up introductory captions before each tale. First up, ‘Perverts, this one’s for you.’

Jemma Khan, performer and artist, lived in Japan for two years and trained with veteran Kamishibai artist Rokuda Genji. She was inspired to turn it into a contemporary form and teamed up with South African colleagues Gwydian Beynon (writer) Carlos Amata (artist) and director John Trengove. The Epicene Butcher is bang up to date with stories about the dream life of cats, Super Mario facing off turtles, the Fukushima earthquake and a version of Hentai (animated pornography) performed with hysterical girlish giggles.

The set-up is kept lo-fi and simple, as it would have been on the road in 1920s Japan – a wooden frame into which paintings are slotted and revealed as the story is told. Jemma Khan, dressed like a stereotypical Harajuku teenager, adopts different accents to suit each story. She has extremely clear pronunciation and a tone of voice that is easy on the ear. The form of presentation doesn’t change over the fifty-five minutes so there is little element of surprise in the staging, apart from Chalk Boy’s louche interventions and an eclectic selection of music.

But the content, both visual and aural, is surprising and occasionally surreal. The drawings range from competent to beautiful. There are close-ups and landscapes and panoramas, some are like a comic strip, one is purely graphic and one has a touch of Hokusai. Gwydian Beynon, who has written several popular South African soap operas and TV dramas, is playful with words and has a brilliant grasp of the bizarre and gory. The story of the Epicene Butcher is a great piece of writing with gothic rhyming phrases.

Sightlines at the Dome Studio Theatre were not ideal for a piece that really needs to be seen head on, and from not too far away. A little knowledge of Japanese culture adds to the experience. Banzai!