Monkey: Journey to the West

With the Spoleto Festival 2008 well underway, bringing with it the usual influx of artists and (more annoyingly) lots of tourists, i decided that this year i was actually going to make an effort to go and see some of the shows. Thus, when some of my colleagues suggested going to see the titular show, i jumped at the chance. Approaching this with absolutely no real knowledge of what i was going to see, i was more than happy to find that it was an impressive, compelling show with some amazing production values. The musical is performed in chinese (with handy subtitles) and combined a mix of chinese opera, with acrobatic feats, some anime and a general sense of fun all round. This recent version, i was surprised to find, was the brainchild of the two driving forces behind the Gorillaz - perhaps no surprise given the design of the characters on the poster. I should really have realised beforehand.

Anyways, the story is based on one of the most famous stories in Chinese literature - the Journey to the West which comprises 100 chapters and details the travel from China to India of a group of heroes to obtain the Buddha scrolls. The main character in the play is a Monkey born from a stone egg - and is given the title 'Monkey who knows emptiness' pretty early on in the show. Combine this with visits underwater, into the skies, a fight with Princess Iron Fan to obtain a fan to put out fires, and naturally an appearance by the giant hand of Buddha (for a moment, i thought it was going to go all Monty Python and it would be followed by a giant foot) and you can imagine the sort of feel the show was going for. The fact that, i think, we had the best seats in the house meant that it was an all-round great experience. With shows like this, i think i may have to pay more attention to Spoleto next year.