Plenty of sex in the Blue Room, but what's love got to do with it?

When Arthur Schnitzler's play Reigen - a series of vignettes depicting characters in various sexual liaisons - opened in 1921, the Vienna police immediately shut it down because of its scandalous content. In 1998, the play resurfaced in the form of an adaptation by British playwright Sir David Hare called The Blue Room. The London West End premiere of Hare's play, directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Jarhead) earned lead actress Nicole Kidman the description 'pure theatrical Viagra'.

The Blue Room opens in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Staged by new local theatre group Stylus, this version is less sexually explicit, but still comes with a warning. Although the characters won't bare all, they'll come close, says co-star, co-director and Stylus founder Adam West.

'The play is a lot racier than anything I've seen on stage in Hong Kong, so I don't quite know how it will be received,' says West. 'We're pushing the boat out a bit, but Hong Kong audiences are fairly sophisticated and we think they'll enjoy a more engaging, modern show.'

Co-starring Kat Cooper, the play depicts a daisy chain of sexual encounters between a diverse selection of characters: A sleeps with B, who sleeps with C, and so on ... until it comes full circle back to A.

West and Cooper each play five roles - including a prostitute, taxi driver, politician, model, actress and aristocrat - in 10 sketches that explore the literal and metaphorical ins and outs of male-female sexual dynamics, nearly all of them culminating in some form of sex.

Cooper, a regular on Hong Kong's amateur-theatre scene, says she had her doubts when West approached her about the play. 'I found the show shocking,' she says of her first reading of the script. 'I wasn't sure I could be that brave.'

She also wasn't comfortable with explicit, on-stage nudity. And with the legacy Kidman had left, Cooper feared audiences would have certain expectations. Nonetheless, she accepted the challenge. 'This play takes me into an uncomfortable zone, and it's good to do that as an actor,' she says.