Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
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
class
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
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.
More from this author
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production that panders – if inadvertently – to Western prejudice against China
MARY CONWAY recommends a beautifully judged performance that shines a light on the experience of all female war babies and boomers
A nervous year, showing that the theatre, like the world, stands on a precipice and seems uncertain where to jump
MARY CONWAY applauds a worthy revival of the US 1939 classic drama that studies the dehumanising consequences of affluence
