About two weeks ago, while taking a nightly stroll through the Yuen Long Park, we decided to take a pit stop at the Yuen Long Theatre to see if there was any good shows in October. One program that stood out to me was the advertisement for Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.
That night, we got our tickets and were feeling quite excited that Yuen Long, of all places, was going to show something so different. Usually, the Yuen Long Theatre gets a lot of Cantonese Opera shows.
If we want to see things like Rent, Phantom of the Opera, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker or whatever, we usually have to head down into TST, Wan Chai, or over to Lantau Island's Asia World Expo.
So, it was nice that we could just walk over to the Yuen Long Theatre for a play.
The Yuen Long Theatre is one of the smaller theaters around town. It has all the usual facilities: Cloak room, ticket counter, little cafe, dance studio, little outdoor garden area…
It also has tons of posters advertising the monthly shows in the foyer. The shows are not exclusive to Yuen Long, but for all of the programs and events around the city.
Over the weekend, we were at the Yuen Long Theatre specifically to check out Of Mice and Men.
I'm a big Steinbeck fan…ever since a friend recommended me to read East of Eden. So, I was quite pumped for the evening!
The show was quite artistic. It was mostly dialogue-based, but the director put a nice bit of emphasis on supporting characters helping to create the mood of the scenes. I think my favorite bits were when the supporting characters were making ranch sound effects: cows, owls, and the wind.
A lot of the audience seemed to agree that the final scene of when George shoots Lennie was a beautifully poetic scene. I totally agree. One woman commented that that was the best part of the play.
As a side note, at the end of the performance, Theatre Noir engaged the audience in a little Inside the Actor's Studio type of exchange. That was actually quite nice. I had not experienced that in all my years here. The audience was allowed to ask the panel of actors, the director, and two other guests questions on their thoughts about the storyline, Steinbeck, the performance, etc. It was really a nice experience for me.
Overall, it was a great evening of dinner and a show. I wish Yuen Long had more programs in English like this.
