Monkey Fight!
Khmer opera has everything I’ve always wanted in a performance: Comedy, drama, acrobatics, costumes and good kung fu. The play started with ornate shadow puppetry about two monkey brothers quarreling. When the action got very intense, the monkey brothers were replaced with live acrobats who had a fast and funny monkey style knife fight. The mayhem causes the brothers’ girlfriend to leave them for a Prince with a calmer temper.
We sat in the front row with a dog and some seven year old Khmers piled against the stage in front of us. The Khmer kids pointed at our beer and made drinking motions, so I gave them our water bottle. They tore into it like candy and realized I had accidentally bought the “fancy” water with the French label.
After much debate amongst themselves, they decided to leave me a little water at the bottom and found the English to say “sorry”. One of the children then adopted me and took it upon himself to explain every scene in the opera to me… in Khmer. I’m sure I got all the nuances.
At one point in the opera, the Prince’s warriors filed out and begin showing their martial prowess with Khmer boxing and acrobatic strength. Flips and backsprings turned into swift kicks and spinning elbows. Human pyramids were built and destroyed and then the magical Apsara girls appeared.
The girl’s dance was Indian with tight mincing footwork. Their arms and hands moved about independently from each other like snakes catching butterflies. Decorated smiling faces weaved back and forth and they folded effortlessly through the increasingly aggressive boys’ dance. The warriors worked harder to impress the girls until they dripped with sweat. Finally, the girls chose two surprised musicians from the orchestra to be their consorts.
At the finale, The Prince battles the two reconciled (but furiously jealous) monkey brothers to the death in an aerial knife and staff fight. Just as the prince and his warriors are overwhelmed, the ever present Apsara girls sprout weapons of their own. The graceful Apsaras’ dance turn out to have been an empty-handed sword dance. Suddenly armed, the girls help the prince defeat the monkeys without altering a step of their fluid moves.
Moral: Do not give monkeys knives. Join a band.
Tags: asia, cambodia, phnom penh, travel