SHAPING up to be one of the highlights at this year's Hong Kong Youth Arts Festival is 21-year-old comedienne Sadie Cottam with her riotous performance of Faces.
The one woman show written by Grace McKeary and directed by Lottie Ross is a touching laugh-a-minute play about a kindergarten teacher on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
''It's basically about personal freedom,'' explained Cottam. ''Loneliness, schizophrenia, problems with inhibition from parents and religion and things.
''It's quite sad really. The laughs come out of the ironies of the various situations she gets into and you don't really notice these until you think back on them.'' Her performances will be this Friday and Saturday in the Fringe Club Theatre.
Arriving in Hong Kong just two months ago after her graduation from Cambridge, Cottam has already had a number of stand-up performances in The Godown and at the premiere party for the movie Jurassic Park.
She also scored a role starring alongside this year's Best Actor winner Tony ''The Lover'' Leung Kar-fai in the recently completed Cantonese film Dragon Heart in which she plays one of the ''European baddies''.