Theatre's free beer and sofas make you feel at home

Hongkongers are well-acquainted with free-flow brunches. Now the more culturally aspirational quaffers among us can enjoy the city's first free-flow theatre experience.

Brave Heart Theatre Company is an English-language performance group that has taken up residency in a 1,500 sq ft deep-techno venue called Premium Sofa Club, on Wing Lok Street, in Sheung Wan.

Its latest production, Three Little Men, by local writer Wing Man Lam, is sponsored by a Lithuanian beer company.

"It's an hour of great theatre in comfy seats with all the free beer you can drink," says Tom Hope, founder and artistic director of the company.

The doors (and beer bottles) open half an hour before the performance starts and astute luvvies will notice this theatre has no stage, curtain or green room. It's also hard to miss that one of the actors is lying, apparently unconscious, on a hospital bed, as the Svyturys lager is served.

For those who intend to remain sober enough to care, the play is a "comic caper" in which three men at different stages of life examine fate, sex, marriage and loneliness.

There is an element of the surreal but the dramatic experience is exciting, informal and intimate. Hope, whose track record in Hong Kong theatre dates back to 1991, is deadly serious about delivering high-quality drama that is cross-cultural and relevant.