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Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
Dark, edgy stories of the lives of teenagers are, if you will excuse the expression, ‘in vogue’. In the midst of government action against binge drinking and concerns over the violence of teenagers and confessional accounts of misspent youth, such as the film Thirteen, Gordon Steel’s tragic-comic account of the lives of Middlesbrough teenagers Angela and Maxine comes like a breath of fresh air.
The two girls drink cheap larger, smoke bad cigarettes and contemplate the possibilities of casual, under-age sex. But Steel’s play leaves these issues, which are currently so concerning to adults, aside and throws us into the teenage world where nothing is more important than being famous and, of course, your best friend.
It has been over ten years since Like a Virgin was first performed at the Edinburgh Festival, but if anything the portrayal of teenagers - in particular their longing for fame – has become more relevant. Angela and Maxine’s desires in life stem from their unified love of Madonna and an urge to ‘make it’ as pop-stars, thus escaping their dull, stultifying working class existence. Sampson (Angela) and Wilkinson’s (Maxine) bitchy banter and easy confidence with each other is certainly reminiscent of the ‘BFF’ relationships of girls’ early teenage years. Comedy abounds in the first act, with a wonderful turn from Julie Wilkinson as the self-obsessed Maxine raising the greatest laughs from the audience.
A good two thirds of the audience were in tears at the finale.
But an undertone of tragedy underlies the play, which only strengthens in the second act. Ken, Angela’s father, has walked out on his wife and daughter; his wife Viv is left a self-medicating wreck, barely able to look after herself, let alone her teenager. As much as Steel’s play is a paean to friendship and girlhood, it is also a critique of modern parenthood. Angela and Viv face a reversal of traditional roles in the first act, with Angela essentially mothering her own mother through unemployment and depression. Despite the arguments typical between a mother and her teenage daughter, there develops between Viv and Angela a relationship that, while it never quite reaches mutual understanding, expresses the strong affection and love between the two.
A revelation in the play’s second half urges Like a Virgin down a more typically tragic trajectory; the realisation comes to the characters that fame is not really important in the greater scheme of things, and that friendship and love can never be undervalued. In contrast to many current portrayals, Angela’s downfall is not self-induced, her leukaemia is a deus ex machina which is unavoidable. Steel’s closing concept is a touch confusing: the play ends with the idea – drawn from Madonna- that ‘Life is a mystery/Everyone must stand alone’, yet the series of reconciliation and expression of love preceding this seem to speak otherwise; Angela’s final journey must be taken alone but Steel has clearly shown that the love in her life has ensured thus far she has not been. Despite this, it is suffice to say – and a credit to the writing and the strength of the actors’ performances- that a good two thirds of the audience were in tears at the finale.
The strong performances in the Reform Theatre Company’s production of Like a Virgin definitely make it worth seeing, in particular one must note the outstanding depiction of Angela and Viv’s relationship by Stacey Sampson and Susan Mitchell respectively, and the sensitive, informed rendering of Angela’s descent into the hell of her illness and inevitable demise. In fact, the play is an overall success, with my one qualm concerning the setting of the play. The bubblegum pop of Madonna’s early albums that intersperse the action presuppose a 1980s background, and attempts to modernise it –mention of the X-factor and Wayne Rooney- were unnecessary and fell flat. Despite this, however, Like a Virgin takes you on a journey through mixed elation, comedy and tragedy; so like the hormonal roller coaster of adolescence itself: it is not an easy way to spend a weekend night, but it is a worthwhile one.
Like a Virgin runs at the York Theatre Royal on the 16th and 17th November.
This sounds amazing... i wasn't sure if i was going to go and see it but this review has just convinced me!
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