One lovable character, two dazzling shows

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-22 11:35

Great choices for families, especially the kids, are two acrobatics-dance shows about the Monkey King. One is Journey to the West at Beizhan Theater until Jan 30 and the other is The Monkey King (Mei Hou Wang) at Poly Theater from Feb 4 to 13.

The classic Chinese novel Journey to the West has inspired countless dramatizations. The one at Beizhan is billed as a musical and although it does not have any singing or dialogue, it is visually breathtaking.

This dazzling display of movements of the human body is performed by the Guangzhou Acrobatic Troupe and orchestrated by Chen Weiya, one of the directors of the Beijing Olympic Ceremonies.

Featuring a fusion of magic and acrobatics, The Monkey King is also based on an excerpt from Journey to the West, in which Monkey King, his master Xuan Zang and two fellow travelers, Pigsy and Sandy, meet the White Bone Demon and have a fierce fight while on the way to India to retrieve the Buddhist sutras.

The performers here are from the Zhejiang Acrobatics Troupe. Its president, Wei Zhenbo, says he found while working on Hello Kitty in Japan eight years ago that Journey to the West and its characters, especially the smart and subversive Monkey King, are popular across Asia.

One lovable character, two dazzling shows

Wei then decided to make a local Monkey King show and this production offers a combination of magic and acrobatics in a stage set that shuttles between mountains, rivers and exotic temples. Breathtaking scenes include the White Bone Demon magically being transformed from a skeleton into a beauty and the Monkey King's gravity-defying feats as performed by the acrobats.

Zhang Feng, a senior Peking Opera performer, is the show's art director. A disciple of Liu Lingtong, an acclaimed Peking Opera player specializing in performing Monkey King, Zhang's design for the characters' actions is based on descriptions in the novel and colored with signature movements in Chinese acrobatics.

The show's costumes were made in the same workshop that created the clothes for characters in blockbusters like Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower (Mancheng Jindai Huangjinjia) and Chen Kaige's The Promise (Wu Ji).

These two Monkey King shows are also perfect for foreign audiences who don't speak Chinese but enjoy Chinese acrobatics and kungfu.