A KEY work in the repertory of the National Beijing Opera Company of China, The Legend of the White Snake is not opera as we know it in the West. Yes, the performers sing in high-pitched, keening voices that trail along a melodic line. They also speak text in a similar sing-song fashion. What startles and engages our attention further is their skill in mime and a brand of gracefully mannered movement akin to dance, as well as a selective but spectacular use of acrobatics delivered with a martial-arts rigour and flair.

Chinese opera is an ancient and highly codified popular art form. This troupe, one of hundreds spread across the country and offically founded only half a century ago, is considered to be at the top of the heap. I can only assume that the other productions, both full-length and one-act, presented during its first British tour are as involving and entertaining as White Snake.

It begins as a charming rom-com in which boy (fortysomething Zhang Wei) meets girl (star actress Li Shengsu, pictured) during a chance shower. In no time at all there is an outwardly happy marriage, precipitously engineered by the young lady’s maid (the feisty Huang Hua) — or is it her sister? These two women, you see, embody a secret known to an old monk (Yang Yanyi) keen to pull the scales from the young husband’s eyes. The bride, it turns out, and her loyal female companion are actually a pair of snake spirits who have adopted human form.

From then on White Snake wriggles into ever more fantastical realms, including a visit to a magical mountain of the gods. An initial confrontation between our fearless — and pregnant! — heroine and the mountain’s guardians (Deer Boy and Crane Boy, played with great gravity and agility by Li Lei and Sun Liang) leads to an even greater, more athletic battle fought by the snake sisters and their water-spirit helpers (played by company members expertly handling rippling silk banners) against a heavenly army wielding sticks.

The show’s mixture of comedy, pathos, fine-tuned thrills and formality is strange and sweet. The costumes are gorgeous, with long sleeves which the performers with their beautifully painted faces expressively flutter and twirl. A small band of musicians sits stage left throughout, plucking out just the right notes of shimmering aural punctuation.