Item 35: Monkey Journey to the West

Location: O2 Centre, Greenwich

Having heard favourable reviews of ‘Monkey Journey to the West’ and being saturated by advertisements for the unique opera all over the tube stations I brought tickets to the preview show at the O2 Centre, Greenwich.

Confusion from three emails sent by Ticketmaster re-scheduling the start time of ‘The Journey’ from 2:30 to 12:30 caused much frustration to many patrons who arrived hours before the actual 4pm performance! ‘The Journey’ which was a poorly ventilated Chinese restaurant and bar set up in the tent left little to be desired during the wait.

The performance itself did combine the realms of music, Chinese acrobatics and animation as promised. But smooth execution and a captivating storyline was lacking.

As a start the main character, Monkey, had no energy, no heart. The periodic action of Monkey scratching his balls only cheapened any character development throughout his performance.

The story was split into short scenes where new characters were introduced along the way. Unlike the friendships Dorothy made during her "journey" to Oz, Monkey met his counterparts and together they continued on their way without any perceivable relationship.

The fight scenes and acrobatics of the supporting cast were impressive to an extent and I'm sure there will be more fluidity as the season progresses. There were clever transitions between animation and the actors. And as expected from the creator of Gorillaz, these were quality graphics.

My memories of the Monkey TV show as a child are vague. All I recall are segments of the opening theme song and the characters chatting merrily in poorly dubbed in English. However, at least back then the characters had depth, unlike what I preveiwed in the story-lacking performance at Greenwich.

Item 35: Monkey Journey to the West? CHECK!