“Beautiful dancers, beautiful costumes. They were so light on their feet. You couldn’t hear them land at all. It was absolutely fantastic. And to have the original Chinese music as well with it was absolutely beautiful,” said Fiona Scorey, a senior account executive.
“It was a spiritual story. So there’s talk of heaven and the divine and it chimed with what I personally believe so it’s rather nice to see that,” said retired music teacher Paul Churchouse.
He added, “I suppose there’s a sense of purity and getting back to basic values, which is nice.”
“I think it’s interesting for people outside of China to learn and understand more about Chinese culture pre-communism,” said Christian Harris, a managing director of a firm.
“Storytelling in the media about Chinese culture is dominated by the single party state of China, and it’s very controlled. And I think now seeing a show like this helps people from non-Chinese backgrounds to have a better understanding of what the very long culture of China is like before 1945.”
Audience members were touched by the spiritual aspect of the performance, in particular, the artists’ embodiment of virtues such as compassion and kindness.
“I think the whole company, the whole organization, sent that message out of being positive and connected. So the pianist, the singer, all of them just oozed a message of wanting to be spiritually connected and peaceful and happy, and it was just a really good message to get across,” Ms. Scorey said.
She added, “The spiritual message gave you hope, and [reinforces] the message that in the future, you can be kind, you can work together. You can have all of those things, and perhaps with a little bit of that, the world’s not going to be as bad as it is at the moment. So it kind of brings a little hope and happiness.”
“I think everybody’s very much enjoying it,” Mr. Churchouse said. “The theater is full tonight so that tells its own story.”
