An Arts Council England funded play saw two sold out performances at the Birmingham Exhibition and Conference Centre before as final performance at the Ming Moon restaurant in Birmingham for the Mid Autumn Festival.
Written by Birmingham solicitor and playwright Ian Henery, the cast performed at two performances during the day in front of an audience of 1,500 people. The play was a scratch play, directed by award winning playwright Ranjit Khutan, that had been edited from the main text in Scene 3 Act 1 during the editing of the work.
The theatrical piece, called the Chinese Creation Myth, was set in 1942 in a farmhouse in Guandong Province, China and was brought to life using the techniques of English street theatre.
"My first draft of the play was 45, 000 words" said Ian Henery "and this was far too long. By comparison, Shakespeare`s Hamlet is 30,000 words and it`s 3 hours long. Modern theatre goers would never sit through a 3 hour play. A rough approximation is 1 hour equals 1,000 words. My first draft was therefore 4.5 hours long - I had to edit it!"
The result was 3 performances of the play within a play that had been edited from Ian`s first draft - the Chinese Creation Myth.
The production for Mid Autumn Festival 2025 was the Chinese Creation Myth which featured actors and actresses of Chinese heritage. Following the two sold out performances Ian Henery and the rest of the Players were then invited to perform at the Ming Moon Restaurant in Birmingham`s Chinese Quarter for the Birmingham Chinatown Business Association.
"The venue was also packed" explained Ian "and it had a different vibe to the Birmingham Events & Conference Centre. We kicked off with some of my poetry and then into the play. It was brilliant - and so was the food afterwards!"
