Sutra at the Lowry Theatre Review
Sutra
The Lowry Theatre
14-15 May 2013
Reviewed by Laura Parle
Sutra is a unique collaboration between choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui,sculptor and artist Anthony Gormley, composer Szymon Brzóska and the monks of the Shaolin Temple in China. The show was originally devised in 2008, following a challenging 3 year development period with the monks at their temple, the monks wanted to keep the spiritual essence of their rituals whilst Cherkaoui wanted to develop these skills further and create a spectacular stage show – thus Sutra was born.
The Shaolin monks put on a five-star performance just by being themselves their stage presence is electric and they commanded the stage like consummate professionals. The skills that are displayed by the 17 monks are part of their spiritual rituals and to them the routines are just an everyday occurrence but to everyone in the audience these routines are a thing of beauty. Their flying kicks, their back flips, their shadow-boxing left everyone is a state of awe you could literally hear a pin drop throughout the performance which is no mean feat when you consider there were several boatloads of school children in the audience.
The stage is centered around 21 coffin sized wooden boxes designed by Turner prize winner Gormley. These boxes with a little imagination create the set; they become boats, beds, a lotus flower, even dominoes. In fact the whole show is open to interpretation my understanding was completely different to the two people sitting next to me where I imagined beds they imagined match boxes. I think that what makes Sutra truly original as you can make it whatever you like.
Sutra is just over an hour long and those 60 minutes fly by just like the Shaolin monks. All in all Sutra is excellent dance collaboration and I would not hesitate to see this piece again.
Definitely a 5 out of 5 performance.
Rating: 5/5 
