Age is Revolting, a new play by British-Armenian playwright Abi Zakarian, sees a class of rebellious teens who have no desire to respect their elders, respect their classmates or respect their choir class gain some important perspective as they suddenly find themselves 80 years old and living in a care home. Through their experience they learn more about the stories their grandparents have to tell and the importance of listening to them, as well as a lot about the value in having fun.
Age is Revolting is presented as part of the National Theatre’s Connections Festival, a series of new plays by leading playwrights, developed through workshops with young people and giving these young companies the opportunity to perform the finished work.
The company, comprised of 14 and 15 year old drama students from Queen’s Park High School in Chester and led by Lucy Lawrence (Nina), Yaroslava Loponova (Arpi), Toby Mulholland (Barney) and Max Oldfield (Mo), performs the script with gusto and everyone involved is clearly having a lot of fun.
Standouts include Oldfield as class clown Mo, Mulholland as the more thoughtful Barney and Jack Watson as magical teacher Mr Manoukian, but there are strong performances across the board as the young performers showcase both comedy and the ability to make the audience think.
A highlight of the 60-minute show is the climactic band performance, with a standout guitar performance by Joe Mayman, sending the audience away with joyful energy.
While the play poses some important questions about ageing and family ties, it is a little muddled in places, with a slightly confusing subplot involving a group of anthropomorphised toys in particular not adding much to the overall thrust of the narrative. Still, this is a show which has its audience laughing, crying, and thinking about calling their grandparents while they still can.
Connections Festival runs at the National Theatre until Saturday 29th June. For more information and tickets, you can follow the link here.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3*)
Gifted tickets in return for an honest review