Promising to fuse together ancient and modern, Eastern and Western, Huang Ruo’s Book Of Mountains And Seas takes ancient Chinese mythology and aims to place it in a timeless setting in this ‘vocal-theatre’ work for 12 voices, six puppeteers and two percussionists. Sadly, the work didn’t really gel, in more ways than one. Vocal ensemble Ars Nova Copenhagen contained some fine individual singers, but the upper voices’ blend was often shrill, and the overall synchronicity of the group a little messy.

The six puppeteers worked together with a flowing set design using fabrics, lanterns and faux-rocks to depicts seas, birds, suns and an ancient giant. However, surely the point of puppetry is to create illusion, no matter how simple the materials? This was not achieved. The ‘rocks’ looked light, the poles of the lanterns conspicuous, and whether the puppeteers’ visibility (often more distinct than the singers’) was deliberate or not, the overall effect was obvious and crude. Using a mixture of traditional Chinese and modern Western percussion, both Michael Murphy and John Ostrowski played excellently, but that wasn’t enough to carry a show where the music felt laboured. 

Book Of Mountains And Seas reviewed at Lyceum Theatre; main picture: Andrew Perry.