Yolk & Swan Song

by David Edmonds - Tawa College (age 17)

Combining the usual teenage stereotypes, plays Yolk and Swan Song comprise two of this year's Young and Hungry: Festival of New Works. Alongside, they seem to meld seamlessly together with the clichéd stories of teenage angst, alienation and identity. Yet, somehow each one is definitive within itself, something rather surprising when characters are played by your peers.

Yolk was the lesser of the two, yet ever slightly. The topic of the moment, cervical cancer was explored and the effect it has on the central character Flip (played aptly by Jennifer Drake), a seemingly confused character whose mother's illness changes the world around her. Around her, a circle of friends comprising of the stereotype and perhaps new archetype. The stereotypes, the abysmally dull Benji, and double standard Michelle who despite being a poorly crafted character deserves kudos for the actress who somehow manages to add a dimension to her. The flamboyant fa'afafine Elliot should become the archetype of this unrepresented minority. The dialogue of this character was impeccably written and a great sense of vulnerability and strength was to be found.

Yolk, however suffers from its stereotypes, becoming clichéd and predictable. The audience is put off by the sex scene between Flip and Benji, simply because it was so overblown and predictable, even Shortland Street does intimacy better than the forced mess much of the supposedly 'emotional' scenes in this play become.

Swan Song another mixed bag, some superb performances yet the script went deliberately out of it's way to try and be creative, resulting in an utter shambles at times. Humour could be derived from the fact that the majority of the characters had no level of emotional depth or dimension yet were just overblown caricatures of existing stereotypes. Considering this, the actors/actresses portraying Theresa, Veronica and Maddie have to be commended for delivering faultless performances. Strong comedic brilliance, understated irony yet the fact they played stereotypical characters with a subtle innocence made for riveting viewing. However the rest of the play was far from enjoyable, the stage play was overtly 'contemporary' and felt like an awful attempt at avant-garde theatre. The scenarios were dull, the death scene almost hilarious with its deadpan emotion and lack of anything resembling dimension. Your browser may not support display of this image.

It almost seems that the teenage stereotypes have prevented these playwrights from presenting quality work. The acting was great in most cases, yet the plots and dialogue was almost too 'deliberate' for its own good.