From the back of the theater sounds a regular beat, quiet at first, then mounting in volume. In dances a slender woman wearing a tight chef's jacket and hat. She is holding aloft a frying pan and, well, playing it. Three men follow her, also in white chef's uniforms, bearing -- and beating -- a plastic tub, a colander and an oilcan, in that order. As the volume escalates, all four snake their way through the audience; by the time they reach the stage, the noise from these improvised instruments is deafening.
Welcome to a night with Nanta: "Jackie Chan meets the Marx Brothers," as the South Korean performance group's manager, Kim Byung Ick, later remarks. For the past five years, on tour and in its home base of Seoul (where 50 percent of the audience is Japanese tourists), Nanta has been wowing audiences with its unusual musical comedy show.
What's so unusual about it? Formed in October 1997, the group takes its name from ran-da, a reading of two kanji meaning "to beat vigorously." But you won't find any drums on stage during a Nanta performance. Instead, the scene is set in a kitchen, strewn with utensils: pots and pans, chopping blocks, buckets, a couple of trash cans. These items are Nanta's props -- and their musical instruments -- plates are tossed across the stage and stacked with a juggler's dexterity, kitchen knives are used to beat out a dangerous rhythm.