Xiqu

Monkey King Play Series:
Shao Opera Art Research Institute of Zhejiang

The Monkey King on stage is clever and agile. Having gone through countless artistic refinement, it has now become a special performance genre in Chinese opera. In this year of the Monkey, the Festival has put together a series to highlight the monkey plays and to offer entertaining and delightful programmes to be enjoyed by all ages.

Monkey play can be categorised by region and defined as the southern and the northern styles. The northern style is represented by Peking Opera, while Shao Opera of Zhejiang is most widely known for the southern style monkey play. Stylistically, the performance of Shao Opera is gallant and straightforward. Shao Opera Monkey King Thrice Beats the Bony Ghost was made into a film in 1960. Since then, Shao Opera monkey play has become widely popular across the country. Shao Opera Art Research Institute of Zhejiang made their Hong Kong debut in 2008 and its performances were enthusiastically applauded by the Hong Kong audience. Returning with critical acclaim, the institute will stage the best of its monkey play with martial acts to astonish the theatre. The audience will look forward to the dynamic cast comprising of Liu Jianyang (Eleven-Year-Old Boy) – famed as “The New Monkey King of Jiangnan” and the proud apprentice of Shao Opera Monkey King master; Yao Baiqing – an exponent of Shao Opera Wang Xiaokui stylistic school and known as the “reborn Bajie of Jiangnan”, as well as the fine actors of the institute. Shao Opera is also reputed as ritual performances at temple fairs. The revived Mulian opera titles selected in the programme of the excerpt performance will highlight the ritual character of the regional opera. Praising Qin Qiong’s Contributions is an excerpt that emphasises on both the singing and the movements; Nine-twist Bridge has a tight-knitted plot; The Fisherman Meeting the Woodcutter, on the other hand, is a classic “duet” play performed by laosheng (old male) and zhengsheng (male lead) actors. The repertoire will stereoscopically demonstrate the artistic qualities of this major local opera genre of Zhejiang.