Performance Review

Likes and Lies, The Box, Freespace, West Kowloon

Author/ Being Neighbourly
18 November 2025

Likes and Lies is a catchy title for the latest co-production of Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation [HKYAF] and WestK Performing Arts (shown 13-15 November at The Box, Freespace in West Kowloon) about an unlikely love story that begins to bloom between a couple of different circumstance.

On the one hand, there’s the local Chinese boy, Chun, whose mother works in a dai pai dong and a Eurasian girl, Savannah, whose parents are forever on holiday and who has been brought up primarily by her helper. Girl meets boy on the MTR, inputs her number into his phone and they start to get to know each other, finding out, to their mutual surprise, that they’re attending the same school — Chun, as a subsidised scholarship student and Savannah due to her cash cow parents.

Most of the ‘getting to know’ is done over the phone, agonising over which emojis will infer what, and, while, the collision of worlds is a fascination for them, it is a point of contention for each of their friend groups who question whether the other is really right for them.

Can people from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds last, is the immediate question, while the broader question posed by writer/director Lindsey McAlister, OBE, is, ‘What is privilege?’ Is it being moneyed or is it having people who are there for you?

The villain of the story is Chun’s younger sister with a score to settle. During a recent summer camp, she was derided for her looks and faulty accent when speaking English.

The little sister reduces Savannah to a stereotype and gets her own back on the ‘Mean girl’ her imagination has created of her, by intercepting the would-be couples’ messages, making it seem like Chun has been flirting with other girls and standing the Mean girl up.

Likes & Lies’ other themes are authenticity and how social media creates pressure to curate a perfect-looking life, which is a lie, because no-one’s life is perfect. There are continual statistics quoted to back the caution with which we should treat social media: that 93% of youngsters use social media daily; and 70% globally feel pressure to be their best selves; 32% of youngsters experience jealousy over other people’s on screen lives; 68% say they experience FOMO [fear of missing out]; and 45% feel of youngsters themselves feel that social media isn’t good for their mental health; but, thankfully, also some laugh-out-loud comedic moments provided mostly by the adult females of the production: Chun’s mother and Savannah’s helper.

In totality, the themes draw comparison with Romeo & Juliet, and films such as Clueless and Mean Girls, with superlative choreography, singing and original music by multi-disciplinary artist Amuer Calderon, which is toe-tapping across its 90-minutes.

For this ensemble of youngsters aged 9-25, HKYAF and WestK Performing Arts have truly provided an alternative to screen time and it’s heartening to see Gen Z-ers so enthused, engaged and invested in the story’s denouement and finale. Two of the performances were school performances followed by a 15-minute Q&A with the cast and crew, ensuring the production’s messaging about real life versus reel life carrying further.

Stay tuned for other HKYAF activities and productions: www.hkyaf.com.