BILLED as 'a city myth in an ever-changing Chinese society', Hong Kong Repertory Theatre's production of Red Room, White Room, Black Room seeks to present a collage of the lives of three generations and cultural classes in modern Shanghai.
Co-written by mainland Chinese playwrights Ma Zhongjun and Qin Peichin, the drama uses the three 'coloured' rooms metaphorically to speak of the nation's search for identity, love and dignity.
A group of brash roadworkers occupy the Red Room, led by the has-been rebel Shui-fu. The White Room has been rented to a young painter, pursued by the young daughter of the Ai family.
The Black Room serves as the ground for the old, fading ideology; this space is interrupted by Lin-han, the Ai's eldest daughter and one of the new women professionals in China.
The play opens with a vignette of propaganda-style communist theatre and a chanteuse's serenade.
A young woman carrying a baby comes to the Ai mansion searching for her lost lover. Shui-fu concocts a story about his imminent return which then progresses into a farcical wedding that ultimately can never be realised.