MONKEY! To 12 July.
Leeds.
MONKEY!
by Colin Teevan.
West Yorkshire Playhouse (Quarry Theatre) To 12 July 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu 1.30pm & Sat 2pm.
Audio-described 7 July, 10 July 1.30pm.
BSL Signed 3 July 7.30pm.
Captioned 8 July.
Runs 2hr 5min One interval.
TICKETS: 0113 213 7700.
www.wyp.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 19 June.
Time for a play.
There’s deep philosophy in this ancient Chinese story, a novel based on a travel book about a man with a mission. There’s also a lot of adventure and action, via a trashy TV series that hit British screens nearly 30 years ago. Guess which of those decided West Yorkshire Playhouse to make Colin Teevan’s version of the story their summer show.
Or, for that matter, which decided London’s Young Vic Theatre on commissioning it as their 2001 Christmas show. The answer’s evident in Teevan’s comic additions. But, despite some dumbing-down of character names (OK, ‘Pigsy’ is snappier than ‘Pig of the Eight Prohibitions’, and Sandy more assimilable than ‘Sand Awakened to Purity’ but I still insist something gets lost), Teevan has retained a hefty slice of the Buddhist background.
Yet it stays in the background, coming forward only where it should, at the end, as the long-sought Buddhist scrolls are unrolled to reveal that wisdom is gained through living experience, not from outside. Given the fortunes still being made from instant-happiness solutions, the point’s hardly all out-of-date.
Dominic Leclerc’s production throws every resource of the Quarry stage at the adventure. Trap doors threaten extinction by hot, unpleasant liquids, designer Liz Cooke’s split mountain-side allows imposing entries, and provides a rock-stratum as monkey’s prison, while the Quarry’s wide sweep is given an extra dimension in the aerial weaving of body and sheet, with sudden apparent tumbles, and – helpful in a story about a long journey west to find the scrolls of wisdom – bounding steps on bungee ropes.
Mark Jonathan’s lighting and a score from Olly Fox exploiting the instrumental clangs and sustained vocal sounds of Chinese music, create strong theatrical moments. Lighting gives a phantasmagoric quality to the key underwater scene where the ever-playful Monkey achieves wisdom through self-sacrifice, and becomes able to cope with life’s bad moments as well as the good.
If only the speech quality were as high as the physical; several performances are vocally inflexible and ill-characterised. Still, journeys are visual rather than vocal things, and with its choreographic grace, Leeds’ Monkey! is a creature worth watching.
Buddha/Yama, King of Death: Matt Costain.
Monkey: Jami Reid-Quarrell.
Jade Emperor: Tink Bruce.
Spirit of the Planet Venus: Meline Danielewicz.
Ehr Lang/Ghost: Tony Hasnath.
Trripittaka: Wendy Hesketh.
Pigsy: Mike Goodenough.
Sandy: Dominic Gately.
Director/Choreographer: Dominic Lecloerc.
Designer: Liz Cooke.
Lighting: Matk Jonathan.
Sound: Micv Pool.
Composer: Ololy Fox.
Voice coach: Paul Hill.
Limbing consultant: Jamie Ogilvie.
Climber:Daniel Northcott.
Assistant director: Kathryn Ind.
2008-06-20 14:23:39