The Blue Bird Storytelling Theatre

Searching for Happiness Beside Us — From a Classic Play to a School-Touring Storytelling Theatre

“If any of you should find the blue bird, would you be very so kind as to give him back to us”

As part of the An Experimental Project on Symbolist Theatre, the storytelling theatre The Blue Bird will tour primary schools between January and March 2027, bringing an adaptation of Maurice Maeterlinck’s classic play The Blue Bird to upper primary students. Tailored for them, this educational theatre program blends learning with entertainment. The performing ensemble consists of six members: three professional drama teaching artists partnering with three graduating interns from the Applied Theatre major in Drama School at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, with the vision of passing down Alice Theatre Laboratory’s educational ethos and aesthetics and nurturing the next generation of drama educators.

Synopsis

This play is adapted from The Blue Bird, a masterpiece by Nobel laureate Maurice Maeterlinck. This beautiful, profound, and family-friendly story begins on Christmas Eve. Two woodcutter’s children, Tyltyl and Mytyl, are entrusted by an old fairy to embark on a quest for the Blue Bird, which is said to bring happiness to whoever finds it. As they journey through different lands, they catch the Blue Bird time and again, only to lose it each time. Eventually, they realize that happiness is not far away—it has been by their side all along. Only by sharing happiness with others can one attain true happiness. Presented in the lively form of storytelling theatre—a traditional Chinese performing art form—this play leads upper primary students to search for the true meaning of happiness and experience benevolence, childlike wonder, and hope.

Storytellers:
Kan Lap-keung, Lai Hiu-shan, Yuen Wai-ying

Storytellers (Interns):
Law Choi-sheung, Lee Cheuk-ling, Lee Po-yee

The contents of the programme do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The views and opinions expressed in this project do not represent the stand of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.