History may be about the past but it speaks to the present. Real figures become mythologised, and legends are made and remade to find their audience – perhaps nowhere more than in the realm of cinema. So it is a deft manoeuvre on the part of this stage production based on the real-life figure of Yip Man – grandmaster of the wing chun style of kung fu, teacher of Bruce Lee, and already the nominal subject of a four-part film franchise and several spin-offs – to tell his story as if it were already a movie. In short, the Man is now even more the Myth.
Shenzhen Opera and Dance Theatre’s spectacular Wing Chun follows a dual narrative, pitching between a 1990s film crew who are making a movie about Yip Man, and the man himself following his arrival in Hong Kong from south China in the 1950s. That sounds head-scratching – real-life performers playing movie-makers making movies about real-life people played by performers. But fear not: all questions are swept away by smart staging, sleek designs, awesome revolving sets, tricks of the light, a pulse-quickening soundtrack, uplifting storytainment, and above all exceptional dance, acrobatics and martial arts.
