MAYER WAKEFIELD is entertained but let down by an audacious production that, sadly, doesn't ring true
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Noble aims and terrific cast – but audience empathy is spread too thin
In true drama, writes MARY CONWAY, we must share in individual jeopardy not just glimpse it fleetingly and in general
A wonderful team effort
[Johan Persson]
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by drama that, despite accomplished performances, cannot overcome an unfocused script
New releases from Sam Carter, Spell Songs and Les Thomas
KEN COCKBURN traces the one original language – that of the Yamnaya pastoral nomads – from which all European and Indian languages derive
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ALEX HALL recommends a searing panorama of our global predicament
Our Generation
National Theatre (Dorfman)
TEENAGERS today are rarely given centre stage, their voices instead often confined to dubious online platforms or filtered through the complacent interpretations of dominant oldies. So it’s brilliant of the National Theatre to bring us the world of youth through the eyes of 12 teenagers in this massively researched and cleverly crafted verbatim offering.
And what a world! Unique characters shine from the stage in a deluge of energy, epitomising that time in our youth when we progress from childhood acceptance to the question of who we are and what we stand for.
Adult exclusion, shared obsessions, fragmented dreams and daily disappointments are all features of these ardent teenage years but what all the young have in common is the pressing need to accommodate the casual and careless accident of birth that brings them where they are. It’s a major ask of anyone.
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