Matthew Whittet’s play SEVENTEEN captures six young people who have come together to celebrate their first night of freedom after twelve long years of schooling. They are on the cusp of their adult lives. An exciting time, an apprehensive time, a very fertile time for a playwright to explore.
Whittet’s approaches his subject from a quirky, inspired conceit. The six characters are played by mature actors. The contrast is deep and sharp; young people just about to start on their own life path, played by actors who have clocked up aeons of life experience.
SEVENTEEN has many strands to it yet one of the main threads is how the secrets we keep, the parts of our lives we try to hide away,,have a habit of coming out any way. It is as if these truths boil over, force themselves out.
The production, helmed by Mary-Anne Gifford, engages from the get go. With her creative team Paris Burrows playground set and costume design, Grant Fraser’a lighting, Michael Huxley’s sound and Sally Dashwood’s choreography make up the stage world for an accomplished cast.
Noel Hodda played the pensive Tom who is ready to move away from his home city. Peter Kowitx is his forthright, effusive best friend Mike and Di Smith plays his kind hearted younger sister, Lizzie,
Katrina Foster is the timid, inhibited, naive Edwina who is egged on to let her guard down. It starts with her getting drunk and throwing up, and things get edgier from there. Di Adams plays the more worldly Sue.
Colin Moody, as always, gives an impactful performance as the outsider Ronnie with zero confidence who the others don’t have the heart to reject.
There’s a line in Robert Redford’s award winning film of Judith Guest’s novel Ordinary People where the young protagonist is told, ‘don’t expect feelings to tickle’.
As Janis Ian so tremulously sang, seventeen is a gawky, difficult age to navigate.
A Wild Thing and Seymour Centre coproduction, Matthew Whittet SEVENTEEN, directed by Maryann Gifford, is playing the downstairs Reginald Theatre at the Seymour Centre until the 19th October 2024.
Performance times Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30pm, Saturdays (except 28th September) at 2pm. www.seymourcentre.com
Production photography Carlita Sari
