[1][2][3] A kabuki theatre troupe from Tokyo, led by the "famous" Kikugoro, arrives at a rural village for a series of performances.

Jin, the town's barber, who was talked into co-sponsoring the event, realises that the "star" is only an actor who uses the famous family name as a publicity stunt.

While drunk and angrily searching for his business partner Wakasaya, Jin accidentally destroys the head of the horse costume of actors Hyoroku and Senpei.

In later years, director Mikio Naruse cited Travelling Actors, despite interventions from the censors during production, as one of his personal favourites.

[4] Naruse biographer Catherine Russell saw Travelling Actors, alongside Hideko the Bus Conductor and This Happy Life, as part of a series of films with an "interesting twist on national policy principles in that they point to a certain sacred character of everyday life […] and characters gaining some kind of insight in [its] value".