The work of Junjction 25 was recommended to me, and indeed I'd had some preliminary e-mailed discussion about possibly bringing it south of the border. My hopes were probably too high. This was fairly bog-standard Youth theatre fare - a show about love and relationships both pre-pubesent and adolescent, by about 20 young people from Glasgow.
The fairly large venue was packed out; it was a sell-out show, and by no means everyone was friends or family, but it seemd to be a fairly uncritical audience and I felt the teenagers deserved better. There was some clinical material about the heart, which involved one child having to hold a real (animal) heart in one hand for the whole duration of the show; and each child's racing heartbeart was read out as they performed a very simple, ultimately boring, aerobic exercise. There were conversations that had obviously come from improvisation and were still not really focussed and honed enough for public performance. At one point "feelings" were represented by each performer squeezing a ripe tomato in one fist, so that all the debris was left on the floor.
This was the end of a long day. If my grandchildren had been taking part I'd have willingly come along to support them, but I'm sure there must be better examples of youth theatre that Scotland could show us.
Bob at Arts Out West.
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