Manchester Literature Festival: An Ape’s Progress
A Rake’s Progress is a series of eight paintings by 18th-century artist William Hogarth.
They show a young man, newly moneyed after the death of his miserly father, moving to London, drinking, gambling, philandering and – finally – corrupted by the city, being committed to an asylum.
An Ape’s Progress is a multimedia performance piece described as a ‘playful reimagining’ of Hogarth’s work. In the piece, originally commissioned for Manchester Jazz Festival, a monkey, fed up with the circus he has been performing in, migrates to Manchester and embarks on an exploration of the city’s ‘past and present.’
The performance uses song, visual art, spoken word and music to help illustrate ‘an immigrant’s journey.’ Poet Matthew Sweeney narrates the tale and vocalist Emilia Mårtensson accompanies in song. Musicians Kit Downes and Matthew Sharp perform original compositions by composer Iain Ballamy, and an impressive animation by Dave McKean is projected on a screen behind the performers.
Through these myriad mediums we follow the monkey as he arrives in Manchester via Salford Quays. He visits Northern Quarter record shops, before reflecting that “everybody has MP3s now anyway,” rides in a pod on the city’s big wheel, eats tapas with a glass of Malbec in a fancy restaurant, and learns about Emmeline Pankhurst, who, he decides, he would like to take for coffee, were she alive.
The show continues in this vein. The monkey also visits Manchester Art Gallery, Matt and Phreds jazz bar and vibrant local markets. Audience members nudge one another at familiar place names and it feels, on occasion, like being part of an extravagant city tour. An Ape’s Progress is technically impressive but a bit shallow, more successful as a showcase for each performer’s individual talent than as a coherent reflection on an immigrant’s journey.