BAD GIRLS MEET MATERIAL BOYS, Edward Lam Dance Theatre Studio Theatre, Cultural Centre June 11-19 A wonderfully engaging 2.5-hour show, Bad Girls Meet Material Boys encapsulated the problems of Hong Kong's own Generation X.
The Edward Lam Dance Theatre production comprised a series of fast-paced, original and often hilarious sketches, performed like a piece of music with themes repeated and played with variation at different tempos and with varying rhythms.
The large, highly disciplined ensemble of mainly young actors worked effectively together.
The piece was a parody of quiz and variety shows, sometimes mocking, sometimes nostalgic, a series of games that illustrated all sorts of problems: loss of direction, a sense of failure, education and family problems.
Puns and word play were a central part of the quickfire humour. The show was full of funny lines with oblique punchlines that often confounded the audience's expectations and delivered thought-provoking political and social messages.
The show veered from the obvious to the profound and back again, flirting with subtexts and suggestions.
It started with two middle-aged ballroom dancers waltzing around the stage.