It's not often you would describe a story about shit as one of life-affirming transcendent beauty, but the moral fable 'The Dandelion Story' is all that and more. Full of colour, whimsy and stunning, original costumes, this professional production concerns a lump of happy-go-lucky anthropomorphised dog excrement seeking meaning out of this short, feculent life. Just like you.Told through narration, song and simple dialogue the show is perfect for kids and adults alike, especially those uninspired by the usual antiseptic Disney fare. Indeed, you may well find a broad smile pasted on your face from beginning to end as happy-go-lucky Doggy-Poo suffers humiliation, discovers the value of friendship and finally; the secret to happiness.After discovering the facts of her physical being, the downcast Doggy-Poo travels to find her place in life . Along the way she encounters a hungry bird You're disgusting doggy poo, some selfish chicks Oh my snitties! Don't play strangers and a mound of dirt none of whom, understandably, want to be her friend. But rejection has taught her to take life less seriously and the mound of dirt eventually warms to her. When she learns that her equally unattractive friend is needed for growing plants, she gains hope. A nascent flower then arrives and reveals to Doggy-Poo her importance role in life. The wonderful news comes with a caveat; in order for her to become compost, she must merge and mix with the mud; Doggy Poo must die. Her choice to sacrifice herself unearths the ironic truth in that the fulfilling life we seek can only be achieved through the (psychological) death of our current selves. To put it another way; the life we want we cannot have at the level of awareness that we live at now. Based on the popular Korean children's fable of the same name by Jung-Saeng Kwon (who died in 2007), this production is simply chock full of delight. The costumes (Jin-Sook Son & Mi-Yang Yoo) are rendered with an incredible suffusion of colourful materials that endow each character with a unique personality. The actors radiate an innocent childlike splendour with the Mound of Dirt (Jae-Hweon Lee) exhibiting extraordinary tactile agility transforming himself as base material to a full living creature in a snap. Though set on a country path, the scenery is transformed with imagination and effective simplicity. When Doggy-Poo looks to the heavens for answers we segue into a light show of black costumed actors moving points of light in a choreographed dance of stars.Mr. Kwon's inspiration for the story came as he reflected on the plight of his family and friends barely eking out a living in poverty-stricken South Korea. The Korean slang for such people , who are often dependent, is 'dog shit' being both common and useless. He wrote this story not only as a statement against bigotry and prejudice but to give hope to the downtrodden. The message of the right to self-fulfillment and the subsequent manifest value to society of a complete self-realized person is communicated in this wonderful story in a simple, original way that is both beautiful and transcendent.
