| Fizzing Theatrical Firework from the Teenage Front-line |
Ravers |
| Torch Youth Theatre , Aberystwyth Arts Centre , April 24, 2025 |
The plot for “Ravers” by playwright Rikki Beadle-Blair is not complex. Two teenagers send out a message that there is to be a rave. Twelve others talk, in monologue or in groups, on whether to attend or not. The police do not care for it and blast over a loudspeaker that the gathering is illegal. The plot may be simple; the emotional and psychological territories that the writer and players encompass are deep and they are complex. The young actors of Pembrokeshire have a sure directorial hand to guide them. In 2010, when he directed Curtain Call in Arad Goch's theatre, he was Timothy J Howe. In 2025 he is plain Tim Howe. The lines for “Ravers” come in a blizzard of modernity. Tim Howe has wisely let his young people test the words out as to whether they are of today. Where they have not been quite of the minute he has encouraged his company to include ones of their own familiarity. Thus juicy neologisms jump on stage. “Stop being an uptight bumsweat.” “You're a bunch of melts.” “Ravers” comes across as an authentic, energy-infused despatch from the generational front line. The characters unspool in different shadings. One fancies themself a comedian. “How to do you tell the sex of a chromosome? Pull down its genes.” To which the response: “Wow, comrade wokety-woke won't like that.” The rigours of teenagehood are laid bare; the striving for self-definition, the craving for stability, the separation from parents allied to the wanting of approval. A young woman does not want a mother who wants to be her best friend. Teenagers are night creatures and in-by times to be back home are negotiated over. A youngster explains to his father “I'm a teenager. It's my job to emotionally manipulate you.” As for presentation to the outer world one, in plain glass spectacles, wonders philosophically whether an extreme dorkiness might do the opposite and render a kind of coolness. Online friendship is seen for its fakery. “Real life does not have to be easy”, says one, “it does have to be real.” Social life can be eased with alcohol. Its hazard is vomit, much discussed, an effect not associated with its alternatives, spliffs, mushrooms, ketamine. A boy and a girl meet in a library. Teenage life can feel to be a prison. “Books”, she says, “they are the gaps between the bars.” For the reviewer, once there but a while back now, there is a consolatary exchange. “Why do old people need their sleep?” “'Cos they're knackered from all the fun they used to have.” The company is Ria Burton, Zane Butland, Katya Foster, Caitlyn Griffiths, Aliyah James, Neo John, Melissa james, Connie Lewis, Owen Lister, Megan Lloyd, Lacey Roberts, Daniel Symington, Calli-May Thomson, Grace Tilbury, Darcey Trueman. Melanie Hughes is assistant director. Mckenzie Roberts is youth assistant technician. “Ravers” comes to Aberystwyth courtesy of the National Theatre and its Connections initiative. Gratitude is due to a national theatre company doing what it was set up to do, to be theatre and national. There is a lesson from this production. Money is good. Actors steeped in the skills imparted at RWCMD, Guildhall add fineness of quality. But the essence is here; a bare space, a few props, plus energy, authenticity, a feel for form, a distillation of emotion. In short, theatre. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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