Review- Order and Chaos- Liars' League

  27-5-15

By: Rachel Barton

 

This is my first time attending Liars’ League. I heard about it when I lived in New York but have never been. I was excited to see that Hong Kong had its own version and travelled out to XXX in Kennedy Town to see the show. For newbies to HK, like myself, this part of HK is a bit unfamiliar and hard to navigate but luckily I found the venue pretty quickly. The venue was full of art and story lovers. It was so nice to see a group of people like that on Monday night!

 

Liars' League is a free event, which is great. When the event is free you often can get away with things you couldn’t in a paid show and also feel free to experiment. I liked the community feel of the event and that everyone felt welcome. 

 

There was an unevenness in the delivery of the stories last night. Some were great like, Jonathan Nazer's closing performance of Henry and Mr Oufle by Brindley Hallam Dennis. Jonathan had a wonderful stage presence. He spoke loudly, grabbed the room from the beginning and everyone in the room made a notable shift in posture to listen more carefully. An excellent way to end the evening!

 

 Others were a bit lacking; relying too heavily on the book in front of them or didn’t seem as well prepared as the other "liars".  In the case of, Aaron Khan, he simply didn’t add enough "umph" to the story to make it captivating for the stage. It was a nice reading but a little boring, if I'm to be perfectly honest.

 

Text wise the stories are great. I would love to know how many are local writers and how many are writers from abroad? The theme of order and chaos was well represented and I liked the diversity of the showcase. In the Ruins of Libraries written by Scott Carpenter was my favorite story of the evening. 

 

Overall, a very enjoyable evening out and a great way to spend a Monday. I will most certainly go again because I love a free event that celebrates new writing. Liars’ League is sure to be a staple of Hong Kong's art scene and it’s easy to why… 

 

Liars' League plays the last Monday of every month. For more information, click here. 


Rate This Show: 1 2 3 4 5 Audience Rating: 3.3

Comments

  • Being Objective
    02 June 2015

    If a show has flaws, then why giving it 4 stars? Isn't the reviewer a little too easy on the grading? I think HKELD is great at promoting arts and theatre work, but it is time to choose writers who can comment objectively about shows and plays in HK. As in for Liars League, I have been to a show once and I wasn't particularly impressed with the performance. I loved the idea behind it, but sadly, not the execution.

  • Rachel
    04 June 2015

    I was totally being objective in my review. Based on the HKELD reviewing criteria, a four star show is... "A great show. Maybe not perfect but it works well on all levels. I would recommend it to others as a ‘must see’. Definitely worth the money."

    So yes, the show had flaws and I mentioned them but it had a free ticket price and I would go again! So, that's why I gave it a 4 rating. Don't worry about us being too soft. I gave 2 stars to Opera Hong Kong a couple weeks ago. When I like a show, I say it. When I don't, I say it.

    I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your Liars' League experience but maybe you should check it out again? Every show is different.

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