October 28, 2008
This is a very unusual show, performed (we are assured) by real monks, who have trained themselves to be lethal fighting machines since they were tiny moppets – and indeed, some of the performing monks are currently tiny moppets, who couldn’t have been more than six or seven years old.
The show opens with great éclat, as a monk works himself into a state in which he can have a metal bar broken over his head, before moving onto a dramatic representation of an incident from the Shaolin monks’ early history, which unfortunately resulted in all of them being assassinated by the emperor, except for five little moppets who escaped to continue the great tradition of Kung Fu. This was pleasingly done using mime and spectacular visual techniques from Chinese opera; the costumes were sumptuous and the fighting splendidly choreographed.
But the real stars of the show are the monks doing their Kung Fu stuff. It’s just the thing to appeal to the little boy in everyone, and indeed much of the audience was composed of little boys and their families (some big boys too), who could be spotted in the interval trying out their Kung Fu screams and moves. The moves on stage were absolutely as fast as lightning, and the yells startlingly savage. There was also a splendidly mystical element to the proceedings, when monks lay down on top of sharp swords and had heavy weights, other monks and beds of nails pressing down on top of them and yet miraculously were not chopped into three segments, or walked barefoot over sharpened axe-heads while carrying buckets full of water and yet miraculously did not get their feet sliced open, and one marvellous trick involving metal dishes, suction, and small boys’ tummies, which had the audience all wondering "How did they DO that?"
I don’t think Kung Fu is going to appeal to girls that much (if mine is anything to go by) because of all the yelling, which is perceived as definitely uncool, and also the ritual exercises imitating the movements of various animals, which can also be uncool. But I expect Oxford’s Kung Fu schools will be doing pretty well for boy recruits next week.
Definitely a very enjoyable and intriguing show, which you would do well to catch.
The show opens with great éclat, as a monk works himself into a state in which he can have a metal bar broken over his head, before moving onto a dramatic representation of an incident from the Shaolin monks’ early history, which unfortunately resulted in all of them being assassinated by the emperor, except for five little moppets who escaped to continue the great tradition of Kung Fu. This was pleasingly done using mime and spectacular visual techniques from Chinese opera; the costumes were sumptuous and the fighting splendidly choreographed.
But the real stars of the show are the monks doing their Kung Fu stuff. It’s just the thing to appeal to the little boy in everyone, and indeed much of the audience was composed of little boys and their families (some big boys too), who could be spotted in the interval trying out their Kung Fu screams and moves. The moves on stage were absolutely as fast as lightning, and the yells startlingly savage. There was also a splendidly mystical element to the proceedings, when monks lay down on top of sharp swords and had heavy weights, other monks and beds of nails pressing down on top of them and yet miraculously were not chopped into three segments, or walked barefoot over sharpened axe-heads while carrying buckets full of water and yet miraculously did not get their feet sliced open, and one marvellous trick involving metal dishes, suction, and small boys’ tummies, which had the audience all wondering "How did they DO that?"
I don’t think Kung Fu is going to appeal to girls that much (if mine is anything to go by) because of all the yelling, which is perceived as definitely uncool, and also the ritual exercises imitating the movements of various animals, which can also be uncool. But I expect Oxford’s Kung Fu schools will be doing pretty well for boy recruits next week.
Definitely a very enjoyable and intriguing show, which you would do well to catch.