Director Rebecca Kinder is keen to assure the reviewers at her press preview that Apples – a play, by John Retallack, about a group of 15 year olds on a Middlesbrough housing estate – is not patronising. Her concerns that it could be seen as such are certainly well-grounded. Within minutes of the preview starting the small group assembled to watch the first few scenes are guffawing, presumably only at hearing a Northern accent. Whether this was the intention or not hardly matters but it is an attitude which will surely have to be combated throughout the play’s run.
The subject matter is typical GCSE drama fodder: underage sex, drug-taking, rape, on-stage masturbation, cancer and teenage pregnancy all within the first three scenes. Yet the pace is snappy, the script can be entertaining and, at times, the actors, setting aside the minor hiccups expected at a preview, sparkle in group scenes. Combined with the multiple music, lighting and costume changes this will be a play that commands audience attention and raises a few laughs in the process.
Joe Bayley, as Adam, a romantically hapless boy suffering from OCD, was particularly impressive in terms of his physicality and mannerisms, immediately creating a connection between his character and the audience. Lucie Cox, as Eve (the object of Adam’s affections), was less assured, but had some really lovely moments – the subtlety of her facial expressions will work well in the smaller Buton Taylor. In later scenes, however, Bayley played up somewhat to audience reactions, really spoiling his character’s believability – he should watch that his vocal performance does not venture into parody.
The play has some more bizarre moments, including moments of intervention from a girl from a porn mag who spontaneously ‘appears’ in Adam’s bedroom (Ellie Gelard, who acts well here and as pregnant rape victim Claire), a foetus (Emily Stewart) and, perhaps least successfully, a butterfly observing the girls as they sunbathe (Howard Coase), but my problem with the play was in its more conventional aspects. The raping bully Gary (Joshua Entecott) appears as undeveloped as a pantomime villain – a fault certainly in the direction, as Entecott’s execution was strong. The message seemed to be that, just as the girls needed to be drunk or drugged to have sex, boys were either weak (and therefore partnerless) or violent alpha males – the more sympathetic treatment which had clearly been applied to thinking through the girls’ dilemmas could have been put to good use here.
Apples, despite its moments of darkness, will be a fun production, injecting some life into a drama scene often lacking in comedy. However, there are aspects of the play itself, and its treatment here, which remain slightly dubious, and potentially uncomfortable.
3 STARS
