Madame F has American neighbors that she had never met and used me as an excuse to meet them. We had drinks with them and I got to practice more French. The husband, a classic New Yorker, wasn't fluent either so we stumble and the wife and Madame F helped us along. It was fun. The wife was excited when she found out I was in theater and insisted I go see Monkey: Journey to the West. It's a Chinese acrobatic opera scored and designed by the founders of Gorillaz. It was pretty fantastic. It was sung in Chinese and had French subtitles. I could understand most of it. The story was secondary to the acrobatics, visuals and music. There were women who brought their legs above their heads so that they were basically only balancing on their chins. There were fight scenes on unicycles and roller blades. The costumes were hit and miss- most were beautiful but some just seemed a little off (colors clashed at strange times, for example,).
In the last scene, monks in red slowly climbed the Buddha above, performing certain rituals. It was methodical and beautiful. The female acrobats were spinning many plates, mimicking a field of flowers. The hero and his fellow travelers ended up in a Paradise.
The guys in black are the creators. I saw the last performance so they came out at the end. You can see the hero, the Monkey, in yellow. You can see the women in pink and green behind them- they were the flowers in the field. I thought it was those colors that looked so strange against the blue Buddha and red monks. But no matter, because it was a truly amazing performance.
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