This week had a special treat in store: We were off to see Mulan the Musical at Glasgow's Fruitmarket. The Chinese production by an all female dance company cast retold the legend of Mulan with percussion and acting, transcending language barriers while still celebrating Chinese culture and heritage.
We were very lucky to be offered review tickets, and I'd shown the girls in advance the trailer and told them the story of the girl who protected her ailing father by pretending to be him and joining the army to fight in his stead.
The performance was breathtaking, the drumming was superb and so were the visuals. With great costumes, great acting, a bit of audience participation, and bit sized pieces that made it easy to follow the story, it was very much a production that appealed to young and old alike. Links had been made with the Chinese community in Glasgow and many schools had school classes in attendance so that it felt very comfortable to have taken out young children to a school night performance.
Snowflake's best friend is Chinese and it even turned out that she had seen it too, possibly even on the same night (though we didn't bump into her) so they had a lot to talk about the next day! I thought it was great for Snowflake to learn a little bit about the cultural heritage of her best friend (they have already exchanged languages, her friend teaching her Mandarin and Snowflake teaching her German). And Cubling was more than excited about it all, impersonating the percussion even before we went to see Mulan.
I felt quite privileged to be able to see such an extraordinary performance right at my doorstep. This was the last performance on Red Poppy Percussion's European tour but considering the performance was sold out, I can't but hope they'll be back really soon.-----------
We received free tickets for the show to review it.
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