A fan of Mark Ravenhill’s work for some time, I have been looking forward to seeing his latest work being done at the National Theatre. His play, Citizenship, is part of a collection of three short plays (Burn/Chatroom/Citizenship) by three playwrights, all about teenagers and their own issues. The roster of plays changes each night, and on this evening I have the opportunity to watch Chatroom, by Edna Walsh, followed by Citizenship.

Chatroom is simple in its concept. Six teens meet in an internet chatroom and grow to learn detail after detail about each other, while still keeping things rather anonomous. One character, Jim, admits he has thoughts of killing himself. The others try to help him. However, two of the other teens, in a sick, self-satisfying mind game, are trying to manipulate him into actually doing it. One kid suggests he writes down a nightly affirmation, to the effect of, ‘if no one cares about me, then why should I.’ A power struggle ensues, with a young man’s life in the balance.

The ending is a bit unsatisfying, but other than the piece is enjoyable. The acting is great; these actors capture teen angst, regardless of their actual ages. I suppose we all still remember that. The comedic moments are really funny, albeit sometimes a bit easy or predictable. Andrew Garfield as Jim gives a heartbreakingly sad and real performance of teen depression. Matt Smith as William, the ringleader of the pro-suicide movement, is powerful, snide, and extremely funny at times. He starts out with a tirade asserting J.K. Rowling ought to be assassinated for what she’s done to children (killed their creativity), and slowly becomes less funny and more dark as the play progresses. A well written and performed character.

The language and subject matter is written just as it would be were real teens saying it. Teens really would be talking about Britney Spears in a chatroom. I appreciated the fact that they sounded genuine, and that the playwright didn’t make them sound like adults by putting too much of her own voice into the text. Surely a difficult task, and fully accomplished here.

The second play, Citizenship, features a much larger cast, including the same six actors from Chatroom. This play is about one boy’s struggle with his own sexuality. Huge, far reaching concepts are not explored here; the theme is simple, yet universal. He’s scared and confused. He goes to his closeted gay teacher for advice, to no avail. He has unprotected sex with his female friend, who bears his child. He starts dating an older man who is already in a relationship. At this point, he’s over the main stuggle of finding out who he is, but with that knowledge comes an entirely new batch of struggles.

Like the previous play, this one feels unsatisfying in the end. The boy decides he deserves love and all the things other people (straight people) deserve. But he’s still very unsure and has a long way to go. I suppose that’s far more true to life than a clean, decisive ending.

Of course, the play is very well performed, is funny, sad, and happy all at the same time. And similarly, uses a specifically teen-voice. Particularly good is Sid Mitchell in the leading role of Tom. I also loved Matt Smith again here as “Gay Gary,” a (not gay) stoner kid perpetually affecting a Jamaican Rasta accent.

Being a teenager is hard. I never want to have to do it again. These plays explore that theme, and are very entertaining. Nothing particularly new or different is explored here, but it still works. The plays are fascinating exactly because we’ve all been through these things before.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 13th, 2006 at 5:50 pm and is filed under Theatre. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.