News

9th November 2007
Monkey nominated for award

Monkey has been nominated for best International Production at the 2007 Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards. The award ceremony will be held on Wednesday, December 5 at the Midland Hotel, Manchester.

More Info:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ entertainment/theatre_and_dance/s/1023506_theatre_award_nominees_revealed

28th February 2006
Manchester to Premiere Monkey: Journey to the West

Awe-inspiring Chinese acrobats, martial arts performers, singers and the makers of the world’s greatest animated pop group in a fresh interpretation of a magical Chinese legend.

Monkey: Journey to the West is a groundbreaking new opera based on the Chinese literary classic with music by Damon Albarn and a visual setting designed by Jamie Hewlett – the artists behind the award-winning animated band Gorillaz. The show will also feature Shaolin Monks and singers from the Beijing Opera.

Written and directed by renowned Chinese theatre director, Chen Shi-Zheng, the show will receive its global premiere at the inaugural Manchester International Festival in 2007.

Monkey: Journey to the West is a co-production by Théâtre du Châtelet Paris, Manchester International Festival and Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

22nd October 2006
Learn with Monkey

Manchester International Festival, in partnership with the Chinese Arts Centre, will be running a very special education programme for primary and secondary schools and community groups, based on Monkey: Journey to the West.

The workshops will introduce participants to the Chinese legend of the Monkey King and the new adaptation of the story for the Festival, and give them an opportunity to learn about Chinese culture.

See www.manchesterinternationalfestival.com for workshop booking details.

Oct 2006
Dates announced for Monkey: Journey to the West

The Palace Theatre, Manchester will play host to Monkey: Journey to the West from 28th June to 7th July, for 13 spectacular performances. Monkey will open the Manchester International Festival, the world’s first international festival of original, new work. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 9am on Monday 30th October. Check www.manchesterinternationafestival.com for details.

The full list of dates is:

June 2007
Thursday 28th / Friday 29th / Saturday 30th *

July 2007
Sunday 1st / Tuesday 3rd / Wednesday 4th July* / Thursday 5th * / Friday 6th / Saturday 7th *
*matinee and evening performance

Feb 2007 date
Money to journey to Paris

Monkey: Journey to the West will visit Paris in September and October. The show opens at Théâtre du Châtelet on 27th September and runs for 19 performances. Tickets can be booked via the theatre’s website http://www.chatelet-theatre.com/ *

September 2007
Wednesday 26th / Thursday 27th / Friday 28th / Saturday 29th ** / Sunday 30th **

October 2007
Tuesday 2nd / Wednesday 3rd / Thursday 4th / Friday 5th / Saturday 6th * / Sunday 7th * / Tuesday 9th ** / Wednesday 10th / Thursday 11th / Friday 12th / Saturday 13th ***

18th June 2007
Manchester sells out

All shows for Monkey: Journey to the West at Manchester International Festival are now sold out.

29th May 2007
All Aboard: Monkey Train Unveiled

To celebrate the opening of Monkey: Journey to the West, Jamie Hewlett has collaborated with graffiti artist Chu on a one-off design for Virgin Trains. The 217 metre Pendolino train is wrapped with nine set designs, over the nine carriages, illustrated with over 90 images from the production. The Monkey Train makes its first journey from London to Manchester today, leaving London Euston for .

Hewlett’s idiosyncratic style is brightening up the countryside as the train travels between London, Manchester and other West Coast destinations including Birmingham, Liverpool and Glasgow. To dress the Pendolino, specialist company Halorail produced 272 vinyl drops, each measuring 1.3 metres x 2.5 metres, to cover both sides of the nine-coach train.

11 June 2007
Meet the cast!

There are 65 characters in the production. Here’s what the show’s designer Jamie Hewlett has to say about some of them:

MONKEY
“When Monkey realises he’s mortal he can’t live with it and wants to be a god. So he acquires armour and his Monkey rod and goes to gatecrash heaven. Then his problems really start…”

TRIPITAKA
“The monk who rescues Monkey. Most of the monsters and demons are trying to eat him.”

SANDY
“He broke a crystal chalice in one of Buddha’s palaces so got banished to a river bed. He spends all night eating humans and all day being depressed about it. We’ve all been there.”

THE SPIDER WOMEN
“They’re like sirens. They want Tripitaka’s semen to give them immortality. But Monkey stops them.”

SKELETON DEMON
“That’s me in the morning! He also wants to eat Tripitaka. He has a gang of girls covered in blood.”

PRINCESS IRON FAN
“She keeps a tiny iron fan in her mouth that becomes huge when she takes it out. There’s a sequence where Monkey turns into a bee and flies into her teacup. She then drinks him and he does kung fu inside her stomach.”

PIGSY
“He’s a bit of a drunken letch. He’d love to give the Spider Women his semen, but they don’t want it. He’s a lothario. He has a Dick Emery flourish to him. He’s got a fast food joint that’s littered with filth. His motto is ‘eat first, fight later’. He’s my favourite.”

19 June 2007
Cue the Klaxophone…

The orchestra for Monkey: Journey to the West is made up of some classical Western instruments, some traditional Chinese instruments and one flight of fancy called the Klaxophone. Intended to replicate the sound of cars on a busy Chinese street, the Klaxophone was conceived by Damon Albarn and Monkey’s musical director David Coulter. It was designed and built in the studio of Brit artist Gavin Turk from old-fashioned car horns, plywood and video game spare parts.

21 June 2007
Chen Shi-Zheng’s debut feature gets New York premiere

Monkey director Chen Shi-Zheng’s debut feature film, Dark Matter, get its New York premiere at the Asian American International Film Festival on 28th July.

Starring Meryl Streep, Liu Ye and Aidan Quinn, Dark Matter is set on the campus of a mid-Western University and follows brilliant Ph.D student Liu Xing as he attempts to uncover the mysteries of ‘dark matter’ as part of a team working under the famous cosmologist Jacob Reiser. Initially, Liu seems to live a charmed life, but as his own work begins to challenge the ideas – and authority – of his mentor, he is gradually pushed to the margins and is finally driven to desperate measures.

Loosely based on a true story, Dark Matter picked up the Alfred P Sloan Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in February 2007.

26 June 2007
10 things you might not have known about Monkey: Journey To The West

1. The statue of Buddha was designed by Jamie Hewlett and made in Bucharest. It is 9.5 metres high and took five trucks to transport it from Romania to Manchester.

2. Monkey actor Fei Yang was in Golden Globe-winning period drama Farewell My Concubine. Zeng Li, who plays the Spider Woman, won the first prize at China’s National Pop Music Tournament in 2005.

3. There are more than 190 costumes, including wigs, masks and prosthetic pieces made in Paris, Berlin and Beijing.

4. The cast start costume and make-up three hours before the show starts and may have up to 8 costume changes a night. The shortest costume change is a mere one and a half minutes.

5. Monkey was a popular Japanese TV series from the late 1970’s. Monkey has also starred in several big-screen adaptations including A Chinese Odyssey, the 2002 version made by Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer.)

6. The Heavenly Soldiers get around the stage on one wheel; each actor is on a unicycle. The Guest Gods have more wheels and wear rollerblades for their performances.

7. There are 98 weapons used in the fight scenes.

8. Built in 1891, the Palace Theatre has a capacity of 1,998. Over the 13 performances at Manchester, up to 25,974 people will see Monkey: Journey To The West.

9. The orchestra is made up of a mixture of European and Chinese instruments, including the Pipa, Zhongran and Zheng and electronic instruments like the Ondes Martenot (played in a similar fashion to the theremin).

10. 181 people are credited in the programme, a figure that breaks down as follows:

19 stage team; 10 Chinese singers; 7 martial artists; 27 acrobats; 9 musical co-ordinators; 18 musicians; 9 bass singers; 5 klaxophone team; 9 animation team; 25 in Theatre du Chatelet; 5 in Staatsoper; 8 Dalian/Yihai team; 1 interpreter; 1 song translator; 12 additional support, management and publicity; 16 in MIF team.

This doesn’t include any of the set or costume builders, theatre staff, caterers etc, which bring the total closer to 500.

28 June 2007
Opening night

Monkey opened tonight in Manchester in front of an audience of 2,000 appreciative viewers. Everything ran smoothly – complicated acrobatic moves were made to look easy by the athletes from Dalian; the orchestra were note-perfect under the direction of conductor Andre de Ridder; the animation was dazzling and the singing was superb. Rattling their jewellery in the smart seats were actors Dennis Hopper and Jude Law, The Good, the Bad and the Queen and Clash bass-player Paul Simonon and the show’s creators Chen Shi-Zheng, Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn. Also in attendance were dozens of journalists – check the site soon to see what they made of the show.

2nd July 2007
Damon & Jamie’s Excellent Adventure

While Damon, Jamie and Shi-Zheng have been working on Monkey, BBC TV’s prestigious arts programme Imagine has been following their progress. The finished film, Damon and Jamie’s Excellent Adventure, will be broadcast on BBC One this Wednesday, 4th July.

The film tracks the production’s journey from Beijing to Paris to Manchester, from the initial musical ideas and preliminary sketches all the way to the opening night. Interviews with all the team give an extraordinary insight into the creative process; the highs, the lows and everything in between. Look out for the villain of the piece, the Chinese dragon…

7th July 2007
The curtain falls…

Monkey: Journey to the West closed this evening after what has been a triumphant run. But just don’t take our word for it, here’s what the critics had to say:

“…simply enchanting, imbued with a charm, vitality and splendour that outdoes anything you’ll see or hear in the West End… I can’t recommend it highly enough. Albarn’s music is pure delight. Chen Shi-Zheng and Jamie Hewlett’s staging is ravishingly pretty and immaculately executed.”
Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph

“…it was exciting, accessible, constantly surprising, and performed with consummate skill. Roll on the next circus opera”
Peter Aspden, Financial Times

“Above all, it’s a spectacle. From the moment the opening video gives way to a dozen acrobats playing monkeys, gambolling on poles 20ft up, the show takes your breath away about once every 5 minutes.”
Tim de Lisle, Mail on Sunday

“… Brilliantly masterminded by the Chinese director Chen Shi-Zheng, and with live action dovetailed into fantastical cartoons by Jamie Hewlett, Monkey is simply a piece of music theatre of the most spectacular kind. Albarn’s music… fits this spectacle like a glove.”
Richard Morrison, The Times

“This is no ordinary piece of classical Chinese theatre… Albarn’s score not only convinces, it delights. Fairground themes abound, electronic bits spar with atonal bongs, and the singing is exquisite.”
Kitty Empire, The Observer

“Never mind its cargo of visual thrills: Monkey stands as the boldest detour ever undertaken by a been-there, done-that rock star in search of pastures new.”
Robert Sandall, Sunday Times Culture

23rd July 2007
Monkey in the Community

Accompanying the world premiere of Monkey: Journey to the West was an education programme for school and community groups in two main parts: a workshop programme, run in partnership with the Chinese Arts Centre, exploring Chinese traditional art forms from martial arts to masks, and a community song-writing project for local groups to write their own alternative monkey opera inspired by Monkey.

The workshop programme saw 1500 people take part over 25 days of workshops between April and July. The groups learned about Chinese culture through story telling, opera, mask-making, puppet-making, costume, Chinese music, traditional and contemporary Chinese dance, Tai Chi, Kung Fu, drama and poetry.

The songwriting project brought together a diverse range of community groups, all keen to develop their musical skills. Inspired by Monkey: Journey to the West, each group wrote and recorded a song based on one of the episodes in the monkey story. The aim of the project was to develop and create an album of music – an alternative Monkey opera – and the whole thing finished with an evening of live performance.

The participating groups ranged from people as young as 5 to older people in their late 70’s, and came from right across Greater Manchester. They included a children’s performing arts group, a soul choir, a brass band, a Chinese community arts group and a mental health support group.

This project was made possible through the support of The Granada Foundation, the Community Foundation for Greater Manchester, the Chinese Arts Centre, and Gorsehill Studios.

30th July 2007
Chen Shi-Zheng at English National Opera

Chen Shi-Zheng will direct The Coronation of Poppea for English National Opera this autumn. Following the critical success of Orfeo, his first production for ENO, Shi-Zheng ‘creates a creates a beautiful production in which Monteverdi’s masterful drama of lust and ambition triumphing over reason is given a magical setting.’

The Coronation of Poppea opens on 18th October; tickets are available now from www.eno.org

15th Sept 2007
Paris sells out

All shows for Monkey: Journey to the West at Theatre du Chatelet are now sold out.

17th September 2007
Paris dates added

Le Chatelet have added 3 matinee performances to their sell-out run. Tickets are available at http://www.chatelet-theatre.com/

* piece in le figaro about the window acetates on the front of the chatelet being stolen.

* chatelet opens to standing ovation and rave reviews (such as le figaro)

28 September 2007
Monkey journeys to Berlin

Monkey: Journey to the West will open at Berlin’s Staatsoper on 8th July 2008, running until 15th July.

Founded in 1742, the Staatsoper unter den Linden has been substantially rebuilt several times since then. Following destruction by fire, bomb damage during WWII and the isolation of the Communist era, the Staatsoper now ranks again among the world’s leading opera houses. Tickets can be booked via the website www.staatsoper-berlin.org

6 October 2007
The verdicts are in…

…and the French critics agree with their English colleagues: Monkey is a triumph.

“This show is like nothing you’ve ever seen before; mixing fluorescent pop aesthetics with traditional Chinese circus” Le Parisien, 27 September 2007

“Monkey is a show for the current cultural climate, destined for a generation comfortable with mixing : a brilliant hotchpotch that scintillates like a will-o'-the-wisp”.
Le Figaro, 28 September 2007

“A stylish show for the start of the theatrical season in Paris.” Le Monde, 2 October 2007

“Just a delightful show.” Figaroscope, 3 October 2007

“Eastern philosophy and musical patchwork combine for an eventful initiatory journey. A colourful show.” Les Echos, 4 October 2007

“A fantastic show!”
La Tribune, 5 October 2007

“Damon Albarn’s first opera score illustrates the plot wonderfully, performed with brio by fascinating singers, acrobats and masters of Chinese martial art.”
Marianne, 6 October 2007