Monkey:Journey to the West of London

Yesterday was our trip up to London taking advantage of a 2 for 1 ticket price for Monkey, Journey to the West and meet up with everyone for Steve's birthday meal.

With the Jubilee line closed, it was an early start for a Sunday morning catching the 9:30am train from Brighton. We took the Thames Clipper from Tower Hill upto the O2 Millennium Dome. The chill factor in the wind was the invisible enemy of warmth and it was worse at the O2. Monkey was based outside the dome in a massive big top tent. Luckily they'd devised some sort of inflatable tubed heating system but our coats stayed on.

We couldn't believe our luck with our allocated seats as we were on the front row at the very middle. However, a shoehorn was required to wedge us between our neighbours. The show started with projected animated sequence of Monkey's egg hatching then the screen rolled away to present the live action players as the yellow/black track-suited Monkey played with his minions (and constantly scratching his crotch). The translation of the Chinese opera lyrics appeared to the flanks of the stage but it made more sense reading the programme's scene guide explaining the mysteries of the Oriental opera.

Some clever interaction with animation helped divide the scenes and the wire-flying acrobatics which enchanted the audience. A personal favourite scene was the Underwater Palace (pictured above) which had the richness of Hewlett's character design with an armored plated shark amusing us the most. The next scene saw Monkey gatecrashing heaven's party which he scoffed all the sacred peaches. I managed to bag a free souvenir as a stray peach was thrown from the stage as Monkey went mental against the soldiers.

The story continued as Buddha expelled Monkey from heaven and was taken on by the priest, Tripitaka for his quest to get the scriptures on his journey west. All the other characters joined him along the way with less animation used but more kung fu dancing and action. Once past the White Skeleton Demon, Spider woman and Volcano City, they reach the Paradise scene with a huge Buddha background set with monks chanting away. It finishes, bizarrely, with some chorus line dancers doing Chinese plate spinning with UV colours.

Our own journey to the West, to Putney wasn't as eventful apart from the most annoying man sat behind us on the Clipper as he sang some sort of Gregorian monk chant/mumble. We only just made the rendezvous point as Steve and the others were about to leave for the restaurant. Carluccio's, a high-end Italian brand with shop was passable for food but I wouldn't visit them again. Hope Steve appreciated his designer chopping board and Top Tramps card game!