The script reinforces the audacity of dumping a full-scale dodgem track centre stage and then demanding that we stay in our seats and watch the cast doing nothing in search of a good time. But the verbal inflections of brutalised cool, which are nuance according to endless video re-runs of MTV, lack the spontaneity of their native Flemish speech. The banter is always projected through the screen of translation. It mirrors the energetic mismatch of bodies and postures that is the choreography of adolescent enthusiasm. The same with the music.
Techno breakbeats whip up the requisite frenzy of wild dancing that puts the fun in funfair.
In the race for emotional credibility it s The Bangles Eternal Flame that has it, hands down, no contest. The youngest girl in white confirmation dress, white brocade Afghan coat, white wellington boots, for the most part is only a mute on-looker. Eternal Flame is her apotheosis. Out of the lot of them, it is her dancing that is the wildest, most exciting, beautiful, thrilling, funny, poignant, tragic, pointless, blasphemous celebration of disaffected youth. Applause, and then the come down.