Hong Kong company Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio’s Detention is a non-verbal physical theatre piece and acrobatic comedy combining clowning, martial arts and percussion. The scene for the show is a high school class room, its blackboard chalked with the words ‘be a good student’. Enter, one a at a time, three mischievous, highly active teenage boys. They don’t want to sit still and write out their 1000 lines, so during the frequent moments when their strict, jaw-jutting teacher is absent, they mess about, drumming out rhythms with whatever comes to hand, monkeying around and ultimately haranguing and chasing and vying for the attentions of a sweetly cute female classmate who’s also been sent for lunchtime detention.
This is fast-moving cartoon-style comedy, all done with guttural sounds, grunts and sighs. A sensational moment happens when the haughty, short-tempered, reprimanding, sadistic schoolmistress (who’s also a bit of a glamour-puss when her sweetheart calls her on her mobile) erupts into her superhero alter-ego, pulling off her clothes and performing an exotic dance that includes walkovers and the splits in a shimmering shaking silver two-piece, causing all four students to faint. Later she is up a ladder, swinging off the ceiling’s ventilation fan. The end result is anarchy, the naughty students enraging their teacher and the cute girl joining in. Teacher ends up in the rubbish bin.
Detention is full of cacophony, frenzied action, mayhem, high-octane larking. The cast of five give a full-throttle performance, yet I found the storyline irritating – I didn’t like the larger of the boys trying any rouse he could to grab and kiss the overly cute, squealing school girl, yet I had to settle into the idea they were playing contemporary, almost manga-style, caricatures, and the cast are all great, multi-talented performers, the school mistress being played by a ‘Champion of World Women Model’. For the finale teacher gets a call at the end that perks her up, and, running off, waves goodbye to her four students who close the show by playing a traditional drum set.