Now showing at the O2 in London is Monkey (猴): Journey to the West, a show based on the 16th Century Chinese novel “Journey to the West” (西游记), by Wu Cheng’en (吴承恩). The show is directed by Chen Shi-Zheng (陈士铮), composed by Damon Albarn with visual design by Jamie Hewlett. Last Tuesday we went along to see the Show.

Alicia is no stranger to the story of Monkey as it is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature but, for me, it was completely new. As a result we both had a different reaction to the show but surprisingly ended up giving it the same rating.

Monkey is not a cartoon, opera, or a musical. Sung in Mandarin, it is a mix of all of these. On the whole it was thoroughly enjoyable, but at times I felt it didn’t quite hang together. The short cartoon interludes which, in themselves were brilliant, often left the show feeling somewhat disjointed. As someone who didn’t know the story, I found it quite hard to follow what was going on and it lacked the fluidity of more polished productions. That said, there were some fabulous isolated performances of acrobatic brilliance.

During the interval, I took the opportunity to consult Wikipedia and read up on the story. This made it a lot easier to follow and I found myself more able to let go and immerse myself in the performance. Despite my criticisms it was a great night and I am really glad I went.

More familiar with the story, Alicia described the show as innovative and loved the novel portrayal of the story. It was completely different from the way she imagined it as a child and nothing like the TV dramas she remembers watching in China. However, she did also find it difficult to get involved and immerse herself in the story.

Monkey is showing at the O2 until the 5th December. If you can, go along and see it. We used a discount code to get 2for1 tickets. I won’t say where to find it, but I will wish you good luck with your JOURNEY.

Score out of 10:

• Alicia: 7/10
• Bill: 6/10 7/10
  (I would have given it 6/10 but, at half price, the show deserved 7/10.)