Huang Ruo’s Book of Mountains and Seas promises mythic spectacle, and at times it delivers with imagery that sears itself into memory. Basil Twist’s staging conjures a world of elemental forces and shifting forms, with large, raw chunks of timber manipulated onstage to create figures of striking presence.
One of the most arresting moments comes early, as these timber elements are assembled into a vast face, complete with glowing light spheres for eyes. These orbs lift away into the theatre’s airspace, casting an uncanny glow across the auditorium. From the sockets pour huge silk-like sheets, unfurling in great waves that transform into a billowing sea. Later, with a deft reconfiguration of the timber, the form becomes a hulking, almost golem-like figure, looming over the action. In the final scenes, the silk becomes the sky, drifting and reshaping in slow, hypnotic motion.
Visually, it is an extraordinary feat of design and stagecraft. The sheer scale and tactility of the materials give the work a mythological weight, they feel ancient and unyielding, yet capable of sudden transformation. It is theatre as sculpture in motion.
However, the musical and dramatic pacing struggle to match the impact of the visuals. The score, performed by Danish choir, Ars Nova Copenhagen and percussion, leans heavily into cyclical patterns. While repetition can be meditative, here it becomes wearing, particularly in the extended third segment. Musical motifs circle back on themselves so often that any sense of forward momentum dissipates. Instead of drawing the listener deeper into its world, the piece risks pushing them out, the hypnotic spell fraying into restlessness.
The combination of static musical development and slow physical transitions means the piece feels longer than its 75-minute running time. One suspects that a sharper edit, retaining the most potent images while trimming musical excess, could have made for a more gripping whole.
That said, when Book of Mountains and Seas lands a visual coup, it does so with undeniable theatrical magic. The face with floating eyes, the transformation of silk from sea to sky, and the looming wooden figure will linger far longer than the sound of the score. It is a production that reaches for the elemental and occasionally grasps it, but its pacing issues keep it from achieving the transcendence it seeks.
Visually stunning, conceptually ambitious, but musically overextended, a work of great images in search of greater urgency
Reviewer: Greg Holstead
Reviewed: 15th August 2025
North West End UK Rating:
Running time – 1hr 15 mins
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