Students rehearse for a Princeton Atelier production of Act IV of Fred Ho’s Journey Beyond the West: The New Adventures of Monkey, an action-adventure martial arts musical fantasy that reimagines the popular Chinese story Journey to the West. Photo by Olivia Gomez.
On April 18 at 6:30 p.m. the Lewis Center for the Arts’ dance program is set to present the world premiere of The Journey Home—The Struggle for Heaven on Earth, Act IV of Fred Ho’s Journey Beyond the West: The New Adventures of Monkey.
The performance will be followed by a talk-back with the cast, director and dance faculty member Rebecca Lazier, fight choreographer and guest faculty member Scott Parker, and the production’s designers.
Journey Beyond the West: The New Adventures of Monkey, a martial arts opera, is based on the 16th-century Chinese novel, Journey to the West.
The novel is one of China’s most famous literary classics and has inspired films, television shows, comic books, board games, spin-off novels and video games.
Acts I through III of Ho’s version premiered in 1997 at the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Princeton’s production marks the first staging of Act IV.
The original material tells the story of a monk, a monkey, a pig and an ogre on a quest to find Buddhist scriptures in India and bring them back to China. They get into various predicaments as these disciples fend off attacks on the monk and rescue him from perilous situations aided by the merciful deity Guanyin.
Ho’s reimagining of the story departs from the traditional ending, where the Pilgrims attain enlightenment. In this production the Monkey King returns to battle the Jade Emperor for control of Heaven and is victorious, a defiant, political statement upending cultural norms.
The student cast includes Shanna Chu, Maddie Clayton, Jaimie Fan, Samantha Gebb, Julianne Goff, Nathaniel Lam, Edward Leung, Yifan Li, Yun-Yun Li, Jessica Liang, Elaine Liew, Ankur Rathee, Christine Wang, Monica Wei, Katherine Zhao and Joy Zou.
After a brief intermission, the musical theater improv comedy of Baby Wants Candy returns to Princeton at 8 p.m.
The entire evening is free and open to the public.
The performances will take place at the Berlind Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center located at 91 University Place, Princeton.
More information is online at princeton.edu/arts.
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