By Kieran Hurwood
4.5/5
The classic cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender, a fantasy series about ‘benders’ who can control the elements of the world around them (separate from the blue people), has recently been converted into a musical performance. Before beginning Avatar in Concert, a remarkable tour of the show’s original music by Jeremy Zuckerman, the conductor spoke about the importance of Avatar: The Last Airbender as a story about the main character’s personal struggle with his peaceable identity in the aftermath of a genocide against his people. This special production, drawing its musical influences predominantly from various East, Southeast and South Asian traditions, brought to the real world what had previously been confined to our televisions.
Particularly impressive pieces included “The Last Agni Kai” and “The Beach”, where the use of lighting and integrated visuals brought firebending into the Royal Festival Hall. Other fan favourites like “Leaves from the Vine” and “Yue becomes the Moon Spirit” also brought the colours, spirit and liveliness of the TV show to life, drastically transforming the room’s atmosphere each time. During several songs, the audience would shout out their sympathies and hatred of prominent characters – in this respect, it was more interactive than I initially expected.
While the performance did mimic the series’ chronological three-part structure (Water—Earth—Fire), it was slightly jarring that many of the show’s events appeared non-chronologically after the first ‘book’ (Water). Indeed, several of its most immersive sequences, for example, the invasion of the Fire Nation, were omitted from the orchestra’s storytelling.
Whereas story-based visuals deeply engaged the audience, producing an orchestral adaptation of the show, other pieces were merely an orchestral performance accompanied by spliced-together scenes from the show with few chronological links. For example, a piece called “Azula” doesn’t appear in the original composition, but was played as an orchestral piece featuring non-chronological visuals. This unusual mish-mash gave a sense of a show unclear on what it wanted to be.
Regardless, the performance was still rousing and affective, adeptly bringing music from the much-loved franchise to life. Though this show is not booked to return to London, it is entirely plausible the franchise’s live-action and cartoon reboots will bring us further excellent events of this kind in the future.
Illustration by Mithalina Taib
