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Curving Road Sh*t M*x
by Leo Richardson
Trafalgar Studios
1 – 25 October 2008
A review by Alan Taylor for EXTRA! EXTRA!
Sh*t M*x is a drama about ‘what it’s really like to be a teenager’. Raggedy Ann has a crush on LB, but Dirty Debbie is on the prowl. Bent Ben has discovered LB’s secret and it all comes to a conclusion on “National Hoodie Day”- an event that coincides with the Guy Fawke’s celebrations. There’s something about dramas that present themselves as “what it’s really like to be a real teenager in real life reality. It’s so real we’ve even really got that real girl from Skins- you know, that show about real life teenagers doing really real things” that makes me slightly cynical, but Sh*t M*x does not do a bad job of weaving a nice story. Believable with good execution, the quirky characters of this play are a shade on the better and more innocent, naïve side of teenage discovery. Providing the comedy with well reasoned response, Steven Webb works well as Bent Ben and commands the role excellently. Cassie Atkinson’s under-rated Dirty Debbie works wonders, and there were a lot of undiscovered depths to her character that made her intriguing, loveable and misunderstood. I partially wish Aimee Ffion Edwards (of Skins fame) had taken the pace of Raggedy Ann down slightly- at times it seemed she was playing more of a caricature than a character, but the tension and heart-warming belief was there- I empathised too much with her poetic aspirations! Though relevant, it does run the risk of being slightly contrived- attempted rape, attempts on your life over feeling shame for being gay and attempted drug use are all the stuff of GCSE drama, not of a play about people doing their GCSEs. Richardson would have done better to play on its subtleties and nuances that make it ‘real’ rather than unnecessary dramas for the sake of being gritty. Reminds me of a television show… Channel 4… Has that Amiee Ffion Edwards in… Can’t think which one now… On the whole, though, Sh*t M*x is very well penned and makes for a good attempt at trying to capitalise on the nation’s obsession with trying to look at today’s teenagers with a microscopic lens. However, it should be taken away from this context and enjoyed for what it really is- a look at British life in the 21st century. An excellent production with a lot of potential that will press a lot of people’s buttons. By the way, if you’re wondering what Sh*t M*x is… Well, you’ll certainly recognise it when you see it!
Sh*t M*x is playing until the 25th of October http://www.theambassadors.com/trafalgarstudios/
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