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"May arrived and off I flew toward The West Yorkshire Playhouse to star as Tripitaka in Colin Teevan’s ‘Monkey’. Wired were aerial consultants for this production and really enjoyed the chance to use bungee-assisted dance in a large theatre production. With a bit of luck more of this work will come about in the future. I have to admit it was a real treat having my own dressing room and my hair done every night, and Matt Costain’s vocal warm ups and songs were totally amaaaaaaaazing!!!" Wendy
“excitingly staged, respectful and effortlessly funny version of the ancient Chinese tale”
“visually powerful production”
“epic and utterly enchanting…an all-round super show”
The Stage
“highly physical and undeniably family-friendly fun,
lightly sprinkled with Taoist philosophy”
“aerialist dancer Wendy Hesketh is equally deft as the determined monk, punctuating her portrayal with graceful leaps and bounds on a bungee cord”
“A cross between a circus-tinged, live-action cartoon and an Asian-flavoured alt-panto”
The Times ***
“Director/choreographer Dominic Leclerc keeps the audience's jaws glued to the floor with a succession of aerial acrobatics”
“The cast soars over the stage, springing up ropes and tumbling in combat with an amazing effortlessness”
“Monkey! stands on its own two furry feet, as irrepressible, energetic and magical as its title character”
Metro ****
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16 June 2008 to 12 July 2008
Wendy performed in The West Yorkshire Playhouse's family show MONKEY!
Here's the blurb:
A cast of experienced aerial performers bring the legendary Chinese and cult TV hero to life in a visual spectacular combining amazing new bungee dance techniques, trapeze, vertical rope and acrobatics. With a mischievous streak as big as China itself, Monkey is a modern hero who loves causing trouble and breaking the rules. Now, to escape imprisonment, he’s got to help Tripitaka, a Buddhist Monk, on the sacred quest over the Himalayas to India.
And what a quest it is – Monkey and Tripitaka must battle tricksy Demons, false Kings and even Yama, King of Death himself. But they’ve got a flying cloud at their command and new friends Sandy and Pigsy to help them on their way, so the Western Heavens may just be within reach.
Wendy received the following acclaim:
In Monkey! Hesketh plays Tripitaka, a monk charged with an epic journey to the West to find sacred Buddhist scriptures. She travels with the mischievous Monkey, played by Jami Reid-Quarrell. Both performers are attached to ropes, and when they skim over land and water the effect is breath-taking, almost like a sequence from a quality cartoon. Hesketh hovers, twists and twirls and then rises four metres off the ground. She can skim over a lily pond. Nothing she does is cumbersome, everything is smooth and calm – the bungee rope can be seen but is unobtrusive. Hesketh is able to fly above most of the huge Quarry Theatre stage and do whatever she wants. Demons have to be scattered, of course, and the character of Tripitaka does this with some beautifully executed martial moves. How long will it be before we see bungee-assisted dance in a pantomime or a production
of Peter Pan? Dancing Times
"Hesketh's performance attains some remarkable
heights - about 12ft on average, though her superhuman bouncing is aided by the deployment of a bungee rope. Yet the technique is more than just a gimmick; there is stunning beauty in the way Hesketh levitates, robes flowing as if floating on an air current rather than suspended from above. As the founder of Wired Aerial Theatre, Hesketh has pioneered this form of bungee-assisted dance -
the potential seems as long as a piece of elastic."
The Guardian
Click here for full Dancing Times review
Click here for full Guardian review
Click here to visit the MONKEY! Archive page on West Yorkshire Playhouse's website
Click here for video feature in The Yorkshire Post
Click here to watch rehearsal footage
The Times interviewed Wendy in the lead up to monkey Click here for the interview
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