Booking and reviews
Fringe box office from 11 June 2010 0131 226 0000
Venue box office from 05 August 2010 0131 220 0143
Online through the Fringe box office www.edfringe.com
For further information please contact the Confucius Institute for Scotland on 0131 662 2180
REVIEWS OF THE SHOW WILL BE PUBLISHED HERE AS THESE COME THROUGH. MEANTIME, SEE WHAT THE NEW YORK TIMES HAD TO SAY ABOUT THE SINGING OF THE DONG PEOPLE FOLLOWING THEIR PEFORMANCE IN CARNEGIE HALL, NEW YORK IN OCTOBER 2009.
‘A sparkling set of songs’ …. ‘Multifarious and splendid music making’
‘..classic songs … evoking first cicadas, then cuckoos, to brilliant and amusing effect.’
The List Magazine August 2010
The title is a little misleading: drumming is but a small part of this showcase of traditional music and dance from the minority Dong and Miao peoples of southwest China.
The series of virtuoso displays, from the furious Wood Drum Dance to love songs accompanied by guitars, violins or unusual woodwind instruments made out of bamboo, are infectiously enjoyable. But frustratingly, as there’s no narrative to the show, or even an introduction, all the songs and dances are performed entirely without context or background.
Highlights include a rendition of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ played exquisitely on a leaf, and a cheeky mating ritual in which the singing is passed back and forth between the men and women. But the real stars of the show are the glorious costumes, particularly the elaborate silver headdresses, belts and necklaces worn by the female performers, their fronds making a cheerful, shimmery percussive jangle as they dance.