Ever so occasionally we'll hear of an event that is well off the London radar, but we quite fancy anyway. If it's within the catchment area of the Ist network we'll pass it along, but at the time of writing, Manchesterist is nothing but a glimmer in a Northern blogger's eye. It falls to us then to give a quick plug to something going on up North that we think you'll find interesting for a number of reasons:
1. It features martial arts
2. It's related to the greatest TV show of all time - Monkey
3. Damon Albarn is doing the musical bit.
4. Jamie Hewlett is doing the visual bit.
5. It's bound to hit London sooner or later because it sounds awesome:
Monkey: Journey to the West – a groundbreaking new circus production based on the Chinese literary classic – will receive its global premiere at the inaugural Manchester International Festival in 2007. Monkey will be set to a musical score 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 Peking Opera.
Full details here - we complained to our own Great Sage Equal of Heaven about the locality of this premiere and received back the mystical utterance Stupid rest of country... if and when they decide to bring the thing our way we'll let you know.
