The Royal Exchange Theatre's amazing Young Company, an award-winning large group of diverse 14 - 25 year olds, who receive regular tuition in theatre arts and produce original work for the Royal Exchange, presented their latest offering this evening, the self-devised 'We're Just Getting Started'.
This was Agitprop Theatre for the 21st century: raw, angry, poignant. heart-felt and highly politically motivated. The whole piece felt edgy and comprised of a series of small vignettes or scenelets with one lead actor in each, taking inspiration from the prompt word, 'protest', and wearing a pair of shoes which evoked that particular theme or memory.
I really enjoyed the way the shoes entered the stage! (no spoilers!)
With the help of writer Guleraana Mir, who collated all their ideas and made them into a coherent whole, the play was a heady infusion of modern music, rhythm, poetry, and protestation. The spoken word items were for me the most poignant, and the short poem about a young boy's grandad in WW1 was particularly moving.
The strong and talented young cast of 12 were on stage and milling and chatting with the audience as we entered. A bare performance area which, with just a few clever lighting choices changed into locations diverse and obvious. The sound too helped enormously with this production, allowing the music of their generation to blend seamlessly with their thoughts and actions. I think what impressed me more than anything though from an artistic point of view was the choreogaphed movements and rhythms of the piece. Tribal in nature and superbly executed delivering and nailing home the message of the prose.
As with all politically motivated theatre, especially those which, like this evening, tell you not just how the cast are feeling but also how you too should be feeling, is that you may not always get audience members who believe the same as you or wish to take the same journey: the forcefulness and gravitas of the performances this evening was highly commendable, and I even liked the idea of involving the audience at both the start and end of this hour-long presentation. Maybe though there needs to be a fall-back plan if the audience aren't willing to come along with you.
Kate Colgrave Pope has directed a piece of bold and fresh 'youth culture' theatre which takes their political and socio-political thoughts and concerns, turns them into a rally, a war-cry, hoping for change and acceptance, and shows the world proudly that these people are indeed, just getting started!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 21/2/19
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