The Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House was home to Meryl Tankard and Taikoz’s production of ‘Kaidan: A Ghost Story’, part of this year’s Sydney Festival.

‘Kaidan’ is based on a great Japanese ghost story, ‘Of a Mirror and a Bell’, from Irish author Lafcadio Hearn’s classic collection of Japanese ghost stories.

‘Of A Mirror and a Bell’ tells of a woman whose life crumbles when she gives away an old family mirror, to be melted down with other mirrors collected from the local woman folk to be cast into a giant temple bell. The mirror, an often used metaphor for a woman’s soul, is a family heirloom that has been passed down generations. The woman laments giving the mirror away as she feared the proverb of the mirror being the soul of a woman.

When the time comes for the great bell to be cast, the mirror given by the woman doesn’t melt. The villagers know who donated it, and her shame is great; her heart was revealed as being hard. Because of the woman’s reluctance, the metal remained solid when the other mirrors, given in a different spirit, melted under the heat. Eventually, her sadness becomes so overpowering that she kills herself, leaving a note to the effect that after her death, the mirror would melt on the condition that great wealth come to whoever managed to break the bell.

The note in fact was a curse, for those who tried to break it to obtain the promised worldly wealth beat it impiously and constantly. The incessant clanging of the bell became overpowering and in desperation the priests rolled it into the river where it lies still, leaving only the legend behind.

Meryl Tankard and Taikoz create a remarkable piece of theatre to bring Hear’s tragic, mystical story to life. Tankard’s group of six dancers moves brilliantly around Stephen Curtis’s exquisite set, and Regis Lansac’s illuminations. The music was wonderful and a real driving force in the play. The score, composed by TaikOz and Timothy Constable, combined the exotic strains of Riley Lee’s bamboo flute (shakuhachi) and the pounding beat of the Japanese taiko drums as played by the seven members of TaikOz. The Taiko players used a broad range of drums and percussion instruments- from the uchiwadaiko-fan drums- to the 250kg Odaiko to the tiniest temple bells.