Our Generation
National Theatre (Dorfman)
 

TEENAGERS today are rarely given centre stage, their voices instead often confined to dubious online platforms or filtered through the complacent interpretations of dominant oldies. So it’s brilliant of the National Theatre to bring us the world of youth through the eyes of 12 teenagers in this massively researched and cleverly crafted verbatim offering.

And what a world! Unique characters shine from the stage in a deluge of energy, epitomising that time in our youth when we progress from childhood acceptance to the question of who we are and what we stand for.

Adult exclusion, shared obsessions, fragmented dreams and daily disappointments are all features of these ardent teenage years but what all the young have in common is the pressing need to  accommodate the casual and careless accident of birth that brings them where they are. It’s a major ask of anyone.