Apples, by Richard Milward, takes Milton’s Garden of Eden in his Paradise Lost and spins it on its head. Instead of coming out of the pages of Genesis, it is set in today’s brutal world where six teenagers come across peer pressure, drugs, and sex. Adam and Eve are still there – only Eve becomes the popular girl who is chased by the virginal, naïve Adam and becomes hooked on ecstasy, her apple. However, at the same time that it brings forth the gruesome world of today’s adolescents, it captures the absurdity of growing up. Complete with a great soundtrack with only one or two false starts, Apples tells the story of teenagers faced with all the troubles and humor of facing new fears from dancing at a club to pregnancy.
The play opens with Joe Bayley as Adam who gives amiability to the character, even in his attempt to act cool under peer pressure. Lucie Cox as Eve plays her with a perfect mixture of sass and vulnerability. The stage fits Ellie Geldard as the conflicted Claire who convincingly argues with herself about keeping her baby. The audience is held in suspense as she contemplates throwing her baby over the bridge. Josh Entecott as Gary becomes the villainous, arrogant boy that the play depends on to create most of the drama, opening up the problems of rape, drugs, and carelessness. Emily Stewart as Eve’s friend Debbie performs well with excellent diction and stage presence. Overall, all the actors take to their accents with surprising credibility thanks to their voice coach Chloe Cornish.
The simple stage works well for the complicated drama and the actors do a good job in creating the environments they find themselves in. Although Apples is rich in its drama, it could use a few more moments of comic relief, only receiving a few laughs from the audience in humorous moments. One comical moment that was memorable was when Howard Coase as Burny comes out in a butterfly costume while Adam is sitting by himself at the club, saying he’s definitely not a social butterfly. Apples in all its humour and horror, shows some truths of the growing up process and all the teenage angst that goes with it.
3 STARS
