YO FUTURE
Repertory House, 167 Esk Street, Invercargill
07/05/2014 - 09/05/2014
Southland Festival of the Arts 2014
Production Details
Take a group of talented local performers under twenty-two.
Mix with a crazy, award-winning theatre-maker. Add a pinch of inter-generational tension and a planet on the verge of collapse and you’ll get YO FUTURE – a radical hybrid of contemporary clowning and choral choreography; funny, angry and totally original.
The show, devised and directed by award winning actor, writer and director Jo Randerson, Yo Future investigates the fears and fascinations of the millennial generation—those born after 1984.
Proudly supported by Creative New Zealand and Invercargill Repertory Society
Wednesday, May 7 – Friday, May 9, 7:30pm
Repertory House, Corner Jed/Esk Streets, Invercargill
Book: i-SITE or online at www.eventfinder.co.nz
(Booking fees apply)
Interesting, dynamic, sometimes confusing
Review by Ruby Cumming 08th May 2014
Inside the programme we are given on arriving at Repertory House are responses from the young actors to questions about their future. These teenagers are concerned and give bleak predictions. What kind of hands will the world be in? We settle in to watch the show, with expectations of entertainment, not of answers.
The set is simple: hanging white cloth and a couch. In the centre of the stage sits an old CRT [cathode ray tube] television. One by one, kids come onstage and begin to watch the TV. The audience is left to imagine what they’re watching. The only clue given is a flicker of light on the faces on the cast, and an occasional response from them. We’ve come to see a show about the future. Is this it? A future of watching somebody else’s television shows? It’s disquieting. It’s deliberately boring and we know that this is not what we want to see.
Stereotypes of youth cross the stage in cliques. Stoners. Bleeding Heart Idealists. As one clique choreographs a dance routine, they’re interrupted by their leader stopping to take a photo of herself. They wait for her to finish, but her focus is on the selfie and soon they give up on their dance.
The musical elements of the show are great. The moments where everyone’s heads are down looking at their phones are eerie and dead. These moments are too similar to real life for us to be comfortable with.
At one stage, a girl who is younger than the rest climbs out of the box. One of the youths leads her away: you don’t want to come to our messy era.
The show is interesting and dynamic, sometimes confusing. The cast are natural and cohesive on stage. There are no signs they were all strangers two weeks ago. It’s clear they’ve had a lot of fun manifesting Jo Randerson’s vision.
The show’s impression of the future is scary and mysterious. An ideal world is spoken of, where everything is good. No one seems to know exactly how to reach that utopia.
Devising theatre that connects the generations and showcases the talents of our local young people is a great beginning. These kids are definitely more than the stereotypes they play.
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