Presented by: Deadset Theatre Company
Reviewed: 28 September 2022
Puberty Blues is a great novel and it makes a really good stage play for young adults. Deadset Theatre Company have performed this truly Australian coming of age play twice before and it really deserves another outing. It is a truly shocking and thoroughly entertaining staging of the story that catapulted Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey into the public eye. It was a novel that shocked many people who read it because of its sometimes graphic description of teenage behaviour. Put on stage, it is no less confronting and it’s a lesson in how to, and how not to, behave.
Matilda Butler and Zoe Muller are tasked with not only the progression of the story over a number of years but also the gift of the characters’ journey through the arc of the play. They are a joy together, playful and effervescent when the story needs it and emotionally raw when challenged with the day to day trials of being teenagers desperate to be part of the in crowd, and ultimately becoming victims to the consequences of becoming part of the Greenhill surfie gang.
Veronika Wlodarczyk’s Cheryl had just the right amount of teenage hauteur to make her utterly dislikeable and Ella Buckingham was a challenging foil for her in their journey through the work. The rest of the girl gang were always lively, involved and challenging. Jai Pearce’s Gary was full of warmth and heart and Tim Stoeckel gave Danny a dangerous edge that made him unpredictable to watch, constantly on the edge of losing it. The rest of the surfie gang was obnoxious and self-indulged to just the right level of teenage angst, leaving us with the challenge of trying to like them – and not succeeding. Lucas Tennant was the obnoxiously sleazy school teacher, Mr Candy, whose short but effective appearance made your skin crawl.
I really liked the relationships that were developed by Zoe Muller and Matilda Butler’s considered direction. They had a vision in 2017 and formed Deadset in order to produce Puberty Blues as their first play. It was a hit then and has matured with age (in a good way). The cast is really alive and aware at all times; you can tell they are all skilled at allowing the story to drive their actors’ instincts, and they allow them to respond to each other and the story, effortlessly allowing us to sit back and let the story unfold in 3D. If you read the book in the late seventies you can really relate to the era. References to Chiko Rolls, Violet Crumbles, surfboards, sun, sea and great waves bring it all surging back. If you’re new to it, the constant attention to detail in the music, the costumes, the set dressing, the hemlines and the beach will give you the feel of what life was like when you could allow yourself the luxury of pretending your parents knew nothing of the risks you were taking and the challenges that coursed through their bodies when they were teenagers.
This is a story that opens up every teenager’s search for a rite of passage. It is a story of how circumstances and events can interrupt the journey, but as we grow and learn more we find we have choices that determine our journey as we progress from children through adolescence into maturity, and just how important it is to experience and learn from every day of our lives.
Every teenager should witness this play, if only to learn that they are not alone. We have progressed in our understanding that some of the choices teenagers faced in the late seventies and early eighties were just the next step in the journey on the path – that our parents had beaten through the undergrowth of being a teenager so we could have a little more understanding. In these days of political correctness it is oh so easy to forget that teenagers have a growth cycle to navigate that is never easy. They face the same problems, the same need to belong outside the family unit, the same need to know what it’s like to be unfettered, and the same need to understand that restraint is a great teacher and an arch enemy. Anarchy was a really important part of the era of this play – not always good, but always educational. Lette and Carey opened a portal into a time of questioning in everyone’s life. Deadset have put it back on stage and everyone that sees this will relate to culture as something that comes from where you live and things that surround you, and sometimes there is no escape. Perhaps it’s why Carey became a teacher and Kathy Lette moved to London in 1988 and married a lawyer!
Go have a great entertaining night in the theatre. It’s only 90 minutes and there is a great bar and a lovely ambience to accompany your night out to Holden Street to see Puberty Blues.
Reviewed by: Adrian Barnes
Venue: Holden Street Theatres – The Studio
Season: 28th September – 2nd October, 2022
Duration: 90 minutes
Tickets: General Admission: $25, Concession: $22
Bookings: https://sales.securetix.net.au/event.php?feed_id=MDAwMDUwMDAwMDAwMzIzMg%3D%3D&event_id=675
More News
