APA, Lyric Theatre December 24-27

As Hollywood will tell you, all Chinese know kung fu. So it’s a rather pleasant surprise to learn from Cara Han, the international producer of Jump, that our Asian neighbours aren’t doing much worse in the chopsocky department. “Koreans learn Taekwondo from an early age,” she writes via email, “and we are familiar and quite good at martial arts.” It’s hard to doubt her words if Jump, coming to our stage this fortnight to coincide with our Christmas festivity, is indeed set around “a traditional Korean family”, as Han puts it.

A largely non-verbal, non-stop martial arts spectacle that combines slapstick comedy with gravity-defying acrobatics, the show consists of nine characters, all of them taking a fair share of the spotlight, which include such stereotypical roles as the authoritarian grandfather and drunken uncle, as well as not-so-conventional parts – or at least we suppose – as the Taekowndo-hopping mother, and the daughter’s suitor, who has a split personality. Their preoccupation? “Each of them is a martial arts expert,” says Han, “[who] enjoys challenging each other to martial arts showdowns [so as to display] their awe-inspiring expertise. And the story gets exciting when two burglars break into this family’s house…”

First produced in 2003 by Korea’s Ye Gam Theatre Company at the Woolim Theater of Seoul, Jump has continued to tour the world while playing in a downtown theatre in Seoul built specifically for the show. Boasting seven productions in total, with an entirely different set of actors for each, the Jump franchise is almost like a school of martial arts in its own right. Han says of the training process: “All [of our] performers are chosen through audition. They are then trained for drama acting, martial arts, and acrobatics through Jump’s curriculum, which are taught by the show’s director and coaching staff of martial arts experts and gymnastic coaches.”

According to Han, creation of the show began with Taekwondo, while acrobatics and other types of martial arts were subsequently added to provide a fuller experience. However, it is the introduction of comedy into the mix that proved the trickiest. She explains, “Slapstick comedy looks – and actually is – hard to be matched with martial arts. Martial arts look very professional and heavy, while comedy looks so funny and light. Also, [our] performers have to do the comic actions with [only] their facial and body expression.”

What the performers definitely don’t lack, if their international producer is anyone to go by, is confidence. “Jump is the first production theatre company to come up with and carry out the idea of [combining comedy] and martial arts on stage in the world,” says Han. “We are so proud of that, and [we] believe that no one can beat this history.”

Edmund Lee

Tickets: hkticketing.com; 3128 8288.