The all male Hot and Spicy Acts of the Apostles, directed and choreographed by Edward Lam, echoes and goes beyond the chaos found in modern classrooms.
The hands-off code of master and pupil is swept away in accumulating scenes of gay sex with a high shock rating. Such scenes are interspersed with irreverent scenes involving Jesus and kung fu masters, yet despite this there is an underlying feeling of religious sentiment.
Performed in Cantonese and peppered with local references this piece tosses a theatrical bomb into the rigid notion of Confucian and Christian educational practices. A capacity audience responded with uninhibited hilarity to the category III rating of much of the humour. Both visually and verbally explicit sexual jokes found their mark.
The main problem with the piece was its length - 31/4 hours with no intermission.
Over long productions are often a feature of obscure, self-indulgent avant-garde groups in their early stages. Surely Lam is beyond this, having accumulated enough theatre savvy to realise that epic productions can fritter away an audience's sympathies.
Much of Hong Kong's experimental theatre has taken the classic avant-garde route of the 1970s and 80s in veering away from text towards a greater emphasis on movement.