Japanese Grandma Funeral at Caveat NYC

Japanese Grandma Funeral comes to Caveat for a special fundraiser performance ahead of its upcoming run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Created and performed by Kento Morita, Japanese Grandma Funeral is a gentle, participatory clown show inspired by Morita’s experience missing his Okinawan grandmother’s funeral during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reimagining the ceremony with the audience cast as his family, Kento attempts to recreate traditional rites—only for everything to keep going slightly, hilariously wrong.

Blending clown, storytelling, and Japanese and Okinawan funeral customs, the show follows Kento as he processes 108 memories of his grandmother, alongside unresolved thoughts and stubborn little details about her life. What begins as a failed ceremony transforms into an intimate invitation to laugh, remember, grieve, and let go together.

Audience members are invited into joyful, low-pressure participation throughout the performance, including a candy version of hashiwatashi (the traditional bone-passing ritual), holding cue cards while Kento performs scenes from Macbeth for his grandmother—a former high-school drama teacher—and joining communal gestures that turn the theater into a temporary family gathering.

Beneath the playful clowning lies a deeply human story about culture, inheritance, and learning how to ask for help. Raised to be “strong and independent,” Kento struggles to lean on others, until this imagined funeral reveals one final lesson from his Obaachan: strength does not mean carrying everything alone.

Morita is a Japanese-American comedian and theatremaker whose work lives between two worlds. Raised in Okinawa and California’s Bay Area, his projects explore identity, ritual, satire, and speculative storytelling. He performs across New York and previously co-produced Duty Free Live! at Caveat for 18 months. His interactive project Moment in Manzanar, an AI-powered theatrical experience about Japanese-American incarceration during World War II, received a 2024 Anthem Award Bronze Medal for Best Use of AI.

Japanese Grandma Funeral is directed by Saki Kawamura and co-produced by Rob Howard. Peter Michael Marino serves as Morita’s mentor and devising partner.

This special performance also functions as a fundraiser supporting the production’s upcoming presentation at the Edinburgh Fringe later this year.