Reviews

Some simians will do anything for a laugh.

In Monkey: The Quest to the West, the rambunctious title character, in the person of Laura Jorgensen, relieves himself on Buddha's giant outstretched hand.

This co-creation with Dallas performance artist Fred Curchack, having its world premiere at Undermain Theatre, is equally outrageous – and outrageously funny – throughout. It's the lightest-hearted of Mr. Curchack's wondrous productions to date. Even children can enjoy it if their parents don't mind occasional bathroom humor.

"I have to say that being Monkey is very liberating," Ms. Jorgensen says as she rests after a preview performance.

Fred Curchack and Laura Jorgensen created the work and play all the roles.

"You're a bad, bad monkey," Mr. Curchack shoots back.

"Everybody should experience somehow just to be Monkey," she counters.

In another of her multiple roles, Ms. Jorgensen plays the Bodhisattva of Compassion as a latter-day Marilyn Monroe. Mr. Curchack's metamorphoses include a deep-voiced and rather gruff Lao Tzu. But despite all the fun, this is a seriously thoughtful approach to adapting Journey to the West, a Chinese novel from the 1590s that also has been adapted in many other forms, from videos to the Peking opera and a British opera.

I wondered whether people for whom this story has spiritual significance might take offense at all the slang and cutting up.

"We invited the abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center when we did a workshop in California. He's come to our plays before," Mr. Curchack says. "They liked it so much they invited us to perform it before the entire Buddhist community."

"One of the people said, 'See, I told you dharma can be fun,' " Ms. Jorgensen recalls gleefully.

"The novel is dirty, it's funny. It's not my invention," Mr. Curchack adds.

The novel is an adaptation of a folk tale that had been performed repeatedly in China for 800 or so years. It deals with a monk sent by the emperor to retrieve Buddhist scriptures from India. In his battles with all kinds of demons, robbers and dragons, he has the help of the upstart monkey king of the play's title.

In the current version, all the roles in the epic tale are played by two performers. But these virtuosos' mastery of voices, silly and serious, and of body language make the action clear at all times.

Most of the original shows written and performed by Mr. Curchack during his two decades in Dallas have involved a good deal of self-revelation. Even the first show he and Ms. Jorgensen did here told us more than we really wanted to know about their personal relationship. But their Noh drama project from a year ago and Monkey stick to the original story lines without overt personal revelation.

Mr. Curchack says there's more of him in this adaptation than meets the eye.

"Remember the line, 'Self, self, self!' Perhaps this is self-revelation because the piece does reveal things about me, about work on myself, that are implicit but seldom expressed outright in the work that I've done," he says.

There's also something of a social message.

"In the world at this moment, it can use gentle reminders like this. All children are self-centered like Monkey, as are all industrialists and politicians," Mr. Curchack says. "Working for the benefit of everybody is simple but very powerful."

But ultimately Monkey is about having fun.

"The Noh plays were quite accessible," Mr. Curchack says, "but I wanted this to be superaccessible."