HND Acting present Teenage Kicks

This production is part of a series of HND Shakespeare projects. While teaching Shakespeare over the years it always seemed to me that without being involved in an actual production, everything we were attempting to learn in class was unfulfilling. Everyone who is serious about wanting to become an actor should, at some point, have the opportunity to tackle difficult challenges.

Teenage Kicks is an adapted version of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, which is widely believed to be William Shakespeare's very first play for the professional stage, capturing a young playwright testing the theatrical waters with themes he would later master. Written around 1590–1593, this “pleasantly fallible” play explores in comic and melodramatic tones, the volatile collision between youthful romantic obsession and the sacred bonds of friendship. If any of it feels familiar, you perhaps are reminded to consider Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night or As You Like It. Indeed, that may be because it is believed to be based on many ideas gathered from a handful of plays written earlier in the sixteenth century, including Arthur Brooke’s 1562 poem, “Romeus and Juliet”.

It is a simple plot made unbelievably complicated by sudden changes of heart and desire. In truth, many of the characters have no idea what they want really and the real challenge for actors is to somehow, convincingly, take us on this bizarre roller coaster without giving the audience whiplash.

It's a long time since I was a teenager, but one of the things I remember very well about being one, was that I was extremely motivated where love or loyalty was concerned. When I say love and loyalty, that could, in my case, include anything from girls to bands to footballers and TV programmes. Anything that concerned a matter of the heart could be redirected by a single chance encounter or recommendation.

This led me to a more benevolent reading of the original play and the idea that it all made sense because of that, sometimes idiotic, teenage energy, the hormonal maelstrom that inhabits the soul of them all to a greater of lesser extent. According to longitudinal neuroimaging studies tracking structural changes in the prefrontal cortex and large-scale neural networks, the human brain does not fully develop until late twenties/ early thirties. Given that that is true, then I think there is room in the world for a new production The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and we can forgive the foibles of the characters therein.

So, sit back and enjoy the inevitable “Love Triangle”, the obligatory “Cross-Dressing Disguises” - possibly made even more confusing by our gender swapping of characters but we’ll let you deliberate over that in your own time – and the eternal question of “Friendship vs. Desire and betrayal of trust”.

Good old Elizabethan first world worries. Enjoy!

So please,

Enjoy

Ian Grieve

TICKET T&Cs

Please bring along email confirmation to the box office, this can be presented on your mobile phone, it does NOT need to be printed (Save the trees)

If you purchase a NCL Student ticket you will be asked to present your New College Lanarkshire student card at the box office.

If you purchase a Concession ticket you will be asked to present your Uni or College student card at the box office.

Without the correct identification you will be asked to pay the balance of a full price ticket

ACCESSIBILITY

If you have additional or access requirements of any sort please get in touch in advance.

performingarts@nclan.ac.uk

01236 460 283

Description supplied by the event organiser.