Udderbelly brings a taste of the Edinburgh Fringe to Hong Kong

In the first weekend of December, one of the most ridiculous looking theatres in the world will rise sedately above the Central Harbourfront.

It will be in the shape of an upside-down inflated purple cow, with its comical purple ears waving in the wind beside the Hong Kong Observation Wheel.

And if the experience at its home town of Edinburgh in Scotland or its adopted second home at Southbank in London is anything to go by, all around it there will be people.

People of all ages and several nationalities, talking and drinking and meeting and chatting and finding a bite to eat in the warm of the evening or in the rain, before or after going to a performance. And that atmosphere, in a 10-week festival of comedy and circus could be a terrific new addition to Hong Kong’s winter cultural celebrations.

The story of the Udderbelly Cow Theatre (owned, confusingly, by a company called Underbelly) involves almost-forgotten bank vaults, an almost-accidental knack for entrepreneurship, a shared love of puns, six shows that wouldn’t take no for an answer, and an absent-minded scribble at the bottom of an advertising pitch.

“In 1999 I was a student at Edinburgh University, and I fell in love with the Fringe festival, so the next year I decided to bring three theatre shows, but I didn’t have a venue,” says co-director of Underbelly Ed Bartlam.