I think I can guarantee you won’t have seen anything quite like this. Chun Yi is a kung fu caper, with 40-or-so high kicking, air-punching, ye-ha-ing performers.
There are spikes, spears, swords and shields which they run onto and bounce off. There’s also dry ice, big music, a bombastic voice-over, spectacular sets, child performers, and more mystic guff than Enrich Von Daniken and Dan Brown combined.
It ostensibly tells the story of a young boy’s training in the way of kung fu, the journey he takes and risks he runs. There’s also circle-of-life stuff, all of which adds up to a silly show whose able performers are sorely underused.
It would be far better if the predominantly male cast simply tumbled and soared, and we could ooh and ahh at their awesome hang time and astonishingly soft landings.
Their horizontal tumbling is also good, as are the three women, although rather predictably they only play a mother, temptress and sweetheart.
How you wish they’d get on with the acrobatics and stop looking so blinking forlorn. Chun Yi is worth seeing for the performers, although you sense them endlessly holding back while we endure two hours of gloopy storytelling and the baffling "wisdom" of monks smashing iron bars on their heads.
Until 16 August. Information: 0871 911 0200, www.eno.org.
Chung YI: The Legend of Kung Fu
