Sadlers Wells, London, 20 October 2018
Reviewed by Antonia Hebbert
4*****
A double bill of highly stylized theatre by the China National Peking Opera Company sounded, em, interesting and worthy rather than a fun afternoon. But how wrong can you be? These two short works were funny and charming, not just for the chortling Chinese families in the audience but also for those like me who know next to nothing about Chinese cultures.
Just to clarify – ‘Peking opera’, or Jingju, means an art form that grew up in the 19th century from folk and formal sources. It mixes mime, speech, music, dance, martial arts and acrobatics, and the visual arts of elaborate face painting and costumes. So although the set was very plain and harshly lit, the characters were wonderful to look at. Embroidered robes, enormous sleeves, elaborate headdresses and mask-like faces all followed strict conventions but also helped to tell the story. Movements are highly stylized – women flowed along as if on little wheels, warriors leapt and twirled in the air before landing as lightly as cats. Subtitles and programme notes helped, but weren’t essential because the actors were so expressive. Jingju proverb: ‘the actor carries the scene on his body’, or indeed hers – the female characters had less to do than the males, but Dai Zhongyu and Liu Mengjiao managed to convey subtle comedy.
The Crossroad Inn is a case of mistaken identity that leads to two characters fighting in the dark (actually the same flat light) – a showpiece sequence of intertwining, not-quite-touching martial arts acrobatics. Liu Bo (as comical innkeeper Liu Lihua) provided some of the afternoon’s most gravity-defying moves; Wang Haoquiang was his worthy opponent Ren Tanghui; and Liu Kuikui was splendid as Jiao Zan, the general they are trying to protect. Wang Luyu provided the highly atmospheric percussion accompaniment.
The Monkey King and The Leopard King also combines comedy with wonderful acrobatic fight sequences. Zhang Zhifang (The Evil Leopard Spirit, with the most fantastic painted face and some fabulous moves) and Ma Yanchao (the Monkey King) had that same skill of conveying a lot of character through stylized movements. Drummer Wang Luyu was joined this time by a small band of musicians.
An entertaining and intriguing show.