Imagine watching the silent film Metropolis, except with live dancers and a digital screen animating epic cities and buildings. That is what the production Tales of 12 Chinese Zodiac felt like, except without the intricacy of plot and continuous character development that drove Metropolis forward – or, in fact, any standard narrative.

Tales of 12 Chinese Zodiac. Photographs courtesy of Ausfeng

Tales of 12 Chinese Zodiac is performed by China Oriental Performing Arts Group, produced by China Arts and Entertainment Group, and presented here by Ausfeng. As the title suggests, the production was a culmination of stories that sought to express and ‘promote Chinese traditional culture and characteristics’. The 12 zodiacs were integrated with popular traditional musical elements that represented the four seasons, which made up the ‘interludes’. The zodiacs themselves were chosen less for the purpose of retelling their origins in a modern-meets-traditional way (which was a sentiment that seemed to resonate with most of the audience), but more for the sake of purely presenting a universal aspect that strongly represents Chinese culture. Hence, there was a lack of coherency in the narrative. Having said that, the artistry displayed in all aspects...