The Secret Theatre Project is back in Hong Kong for its third year, this time with the theme of Project Mayhem. To put it simply, Secret Theatre Project is an immersive show that relies on audience engagement. The secret part comes from not knowing the venue’s location or all that much about the premise of the show. Sure, they give you the title of “Project Mayhem” and a bit of a teaser trailer, but you really have to just buy a ticket and cross your fingers that you’ll enjoy it. This year, the Secret Theatre Project has teamed up with Butcher’s Club to put on a three-course dinner before the show.

The Food

I’m a big fan of Butcher’s Club (if you haven’t already been, you should check out their private kitchen – it’s amazing), so it’s no surprise that I loved the dinner. The three-course dinner consisted of Australian Black Mussels in the most delicious creamy garlic sauce to start. For our main, we each had a generous portion of their 45-day dry-aged Australian Black Angus Ribeye with bowls of salad and my all-time favorite thick-cut fries. To wrap up, we tucked into the most decadent chocolate cake. The meal also comes with a bottle of wine to share between two people. The only complaint I have about dinner is that we felt a bit rushed in the end, as we had to finish up quickly to start the show.

The Show

I obviously can’t say too much about the actual show, considering it’s meant to be a secret and all, but I will say that throughout most of the two hours I participated in the production I was confused. I really wanted to love the show (I’m a huge fan of theatre, especially musicals), but I constantly found myself asking friends questions about what was going on or looking at my watch painfully counting down the minutes until I could leave.

The first half of the show, there was heavy audience involvement – at one point we were doing push-ups and skipping rope, which I hated every second of. However, the second half of the show was when the actors took center stage. Although the acting was quite good, the story line completely lost me until the last 30 minutes or so. I understand that “Project Mayhem” was meant to be chaotic, but it was done in an incredibly unorganized way that left many of us feeling confused and disinterested.

Verdict

Like I said earlier, I wanted to love Secret Theatre Project and I was so excited to go, but ultimately I left feeling disappointed. Thankfully, the dinner was delicious, albeit rushed at the end, which helped to make up for the lack of clarity that followed our meal. Though I wouldn’t necessarily discourage anyone from going (some people might actually enjoy being immersed in disorder and chaos for two hours), if Secret Theatre Project offered refunds based on dissatisfaction, I would have asked for one.

Dinner & Show – HK$1,600
Show – HK$850 

To purchase tickets, go here.