What were you doing on the night of your last high school exam? Did you spiral into an existential crisis in the quiet of your bedroom, or round up your friends and treat binge drinking like an Olympic sport? The schoolkids of Australian playwright Matthew Whittet’s Seventeen fall firmly into the latter camp, congregating in a suburban playground to drink, reflect, fight and drink some more.
However, this classic coming-of-age narrative has a clever twist: these angsty teens are played by legendary veterans of the Aussie stage and screen. It’s an incredibly effective premise, amping up the play’s focus on past and future by casting actors with wisdom far beyond their characters’ years. Robert Menzies, Genevieve Picot, Richard Piper, Pamela Rabe and George Shevtsov put on a terrific performance across the board. They nail the emotional and physical oscillation between sullen and frenetic so typical to tumultuous teens. And Fiona Choi expertly channels the little sister who secretly knows much more than you think.
Seventeen takes place entirely within a playground, dirt and all. There’s something about seeing grown-up actors scuffing the bark chips in frustration that triggers a deep sensory memory of the lack of agency one feels as a teen. Christina Smith’s thoughtful set rotates ever so slowly, mirroring the passage of what is likely the longest night of these kids’ lives, as a single street lamp beams down disturbing the cover of darkness. The singular set serves to enhance the feeling of being suspended on the precipice of adulthood. Lighting designer Paul Jackson’s simulated sunrise is emotional to behold, perhaps even more so than the conclusion of the narrative itself.
Seventeen premiered at Sydney’s Belvoir Street Theatre almost a decade ago in 2015, after Taylor Swift famously gave last-minute permission for her Millenial hit ‘Shake it Off’ to be used in the play. This time around, it’s Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘bad idea right?’. Watching the seasoned cast dance to the unofficial anthem of Gen Z is nothing short of joyful, but it raises the question of whether Seventeen holds a mirror to today’s youth, or the youth of its fully grown audience – one of which whipped out her phone to search for the aforementioned youthful tune.
Nostalgia is a powerful drug and Seventeen certainly succeeds in inducing the sentimental high that comes from contemplating just how fast life passes us by. Nonetheless, one conspicuous caveat to the narrative’s impact is the fact that Whittet’s vignette of youth issues doesn’t quite line up with the graduates of 2024.
These teens are troubled by a bevy of believable blights – difficulties at home, unrequited love and the crushing weight of the unknown. But where are the issues that plague teens in the 2020s? The climate crisis that will hit in their lifetimes and the fact that they might never be able to afford property are noticeably absent from Seventeen’s world. Not to mention the actual pandemic that turned the high school experience of today’s grads on its head.
These friends dress like Gen Z, show off TikTok dances like Gen Z, but they don’t feel like Gen Z. For better or worse Seventeen is a tale frozen in time – but you might just leave with an extremely current new earworm.
Melbourne Theatre Company's 'Seventeen' is playing at the Southbank Theatre until February 17. For more information and to purchase tickets, head to the website.
