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Box Clever presents Sixteen Up
A sort of a love story By Michael Wicherek
Directed by Iqbal Khan
Cast
Unicorn Theatre 11 - 22 November 2008
A review by Rosie Fiore for EXTRA! EXTRA!
The Unicorn Theatre, their website tells me, is the UK’s flagship theatre for young people. Housed in a striking building just opposite the Southwark Playhouse, it just buzzes with potential. What a great venue for kids to watch, participate in and develop a passion for the live performing arts. The Weston Theatre is an amphitheatre shaped space with a wide apron stage, semi-circular banks of seating and excellent technical capabilities. It was exciting just to walk in there. At 40, I knew I wasn’t the target audience for Sixteen Up, so I took two teenagers with me: my 16-year-old son and his girlfriend. Before the show began, we were all intrigued by the set elements: two large, “boxes” on wheels, open on three sides, with a slanted, canvas screen forming the fourth side. A solo musician entered and began to play his guitar: the two performers entered their boxes (we saw them as shadows at first), and the story of Adam and Evie began to unfold. Without spoiling the production for you at all, I can recount the plot in 31 words. Adam and Evie meet. They have a sexual encounter. They love each other. They break up and go out with other people. They discover they still love each other. The End. I wish I could tell you that this plotline is couched in myriad twists and turns, in subtleties, in insights into the characters, but it’s not. We are given no context for the teenagers: where do they live? Are they of the same social class? After the initial encounter, how does the relationship develop? Why does it founder? Playwright Wicherek seems to find this information irrelevant, and instead devotes time to excruciatingly detailed exposition of various sexual exploits. The fragments of story we are given are woven in with dance, music, animation and projection, all of which are striking and visually memorable, but none of which give us more information about Adam and Evie. In some way, the “boxes” that so intrigued us on entering the venue are a metaphor for the play: they seemed potentially so versatile, exciting and different, but they were shunted around meaninglessly, and ultimately added very little to our enlightenment. I tried to put my middle-aged prejudices to one side, and asked my young companions what they thought. They loved the animations, thought the performers were both very talented and were both most struck by the musical accompaniment from the utterly excellent Ben Hales (Brother of and co-writer for Aqualung). But they had profound reservations. “Whenever adults try to write the way that kids speak,” my son said, “They get it wrong, Even if they use the right words in the right way, it sounds fake.” But his girlfriend put it most succinctly. “Why do people think if they create a play for teenagers, it has to be all about sex?” she said. “We do other things, and we’re interested in other things.” And therein lies the rub. The venue, the set, the music, the performers, all burst with possibilities, but the script dramatically underestimates its audience. 11 - 22 November 2008, Weston Theatre, Unicorn Theatre Prices: £14.50 / Children & Concessions £9.50 / Schools £6. Unicorn Theatre Telephone: 020 7645 0560
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ay Couzen