Writer and Director: Theo Duddridge
Plays about zombies are few and far between, so kudos to Theo Duddridge for presenting Absence of Youth in the same month as film 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is released in British cinemas. Both play and film share similarities in the way they focus on young people trying to grow up without parental figures. In Nia DaCosta’s film, with screenplay by the prolific Alex Garland, a group of teenagers terrorises an apocalyptic Britain dressed as Jimmy Saville in their shiny tracksuits and layers of bling. Duddridge’s zombie disaster is less absurd but, unfortunately, less successful.
Of course, the 28 Days Later franchise is an influence on Duddridge, and so, too, according to the programme, are the Covid lockdowns. However, while the zombies marauding outside the hut where his cast of five finds itself is familiar to anyone who has watched the films, or indeed, the TV series The Walking Dead, it’s more difficult to see the link between the plot and the recent pandemic, apart from the idea that Covid caused a whole generation to be isolated at the time when crucial friendships, social relations and education are meant to be forged. Duddridge’s thin zombie analogy doesn’t convince.
Running at just over 40 minutes, little happens in Absence of Youth, and with no humour, it’s too earnestly played. Michael, Rose and Alex, all in their early 20s, have just rescued stranger Henry from a zombie attack while they were out scouting for food and firewood. Furious that they risked their lives in the rescue and lost their friend Jack, Alex storms out of the cabin. Meanwhile, Rose tends to Henry’s injuries, and Michael gets a fire going.
When another survivor, Sarah, arrives, Michael tells her that, before the outbreak, his parents had promised to take him to Milan. Inanely she tells him not to give up on his dream of going to Italy. Hope, she says, “is what makes us human.” The characters’ stolen childhoods are symbolised by a scruffy tennis ball that once belonged to Jack. Can they remember how to play catch?
The end is overwrought and busy with guns and knives, although the five actors gamely try their best to bring urgency to their underwritten characters.
Runs until 31 January 2026
