Monkey Magic!

IIIIIIIIIIIII went to see Monkey: Journey to The West last night and it was fandabbidosingtastic! It was stupendous! I loved Damon Albarn's music, and Jamie Hewlett's designs and Chen Shi-Zheng's direction.

It wasn't perfect. The transitions between scenes were a little bumpy. Maybe my expectations are unrealistic after seeing a similarly ambitious show (His Dark Materials at the National Theatre) a couple of years ago which was utterly smooth. Mind you, they had the amazing Rubik's-cube that is the Olivier stage to play with.

I'd never been to the Royal Opera House before (only to a little boxy theatre right at the top to see my brother perform as part of the Knack course). It's breath-taking. We could still see nice and clearly from up in the gods, though.

The performers were amazing, all of the main characters able to sing, act and perform acrobatics and martial arts... Monkey himself, of course, made the biggest impression, snarling and cackling his crazed way through the story. The animation was charming - pretty jerky and looped, but with all of Hewlett's inimitable style - the design, from costume to set was beautiful and as I say, the music was incredibly impressive - stirring and comedic by turns.

So to keep in theme I thought I'd upload a picture of some drawers I painted last year. They were just those wooden Ikea ones, meant for CDs (in fact, that's what I keep in them now), but I have a tradition of livening those up in elaborate style, and these were Spirite- Away-inspired.