Chun Yi: The Legend Of Kung Fu, London Coliseum
THIS spectacular production received its premiere in 2004 at the Red Theatre in Beijing and has been running ever since. It’s not difficult to see why.
A heady combination of martial arts, ballet, music, song and circus acrobatics, it provides plenty of bang for your bucks (or yuen).
Imagine Andrew Lloyd Webber cosying up to Jet Li with a side order of Cirque du Soleil and you’re getting close.
Structured around the story told by an old temple master (David Yip, TV’s Chinese Detective) to a fearful young apprentice as he prepares to enter the monastery, it is simple entertainment, vividly executed.
Huge rolls of silk unfurl across the stage, lit by banks of lights that would not disgrace a U2 concert; an ensemble of shaven-headed monks leap on to the stage and perform dazzlingly fast kung-fu movements in unison to an ear-splitting soundtrack that seems to combine Chinese classical music with Shostakovich at his most belligerent.
Clearly, this touring production has been tailored for Western audiences with the gnomic dialogue sounding uncannily similar to the exchanges between David Carradine’s “Grasshopper” and his blind Master in TV’s Kung Fu. Plus ca change.
It is largely successful, with some breathtaking sequences involving feats of meditative strength and endurance, including a man being held aloft on spearpoints, breaking metal rods against skulls and whirling metal chains that would slice through a neck like a cheesecutter.
But there are also moments of great beauty, too. The contemplative sequences, slowed down to tai chi pace, offer not just a respite from the visceral action but also an opportunity to savour the grace of the movements.
And it is intriguing to see just how easily classical ballet movement is assimilated into the formal gestures of martial arts.
The youngest apprentices, child monks with cheeky grins and a showstopping attitude, perform wonderful forward cartwheels using their heads that gave me a migraine just to witness.
The daring aerial sequences are impressive and do not outstay their welcome.
If the spiritual dimension and message of non-violence is rather overwhelmed by all the shouting, kicking, flying, punching, running and jumping I don’t suppose it really matters.
This is nothing more or less than a big, bold, colourful, knock-your-eyes out show that bludgeons you into submission and sends you home in a pleasant daze.
There is even dry ice and bubbles. Now tell me, when did you last see bubbles on stage?
VERDICT 3/5
London Coliseum, 020 7632 8300
