Writer: Tamsin Rees
Director: Hannah McLeod
“We’re not kids anymore, are we” says stern and nerdy 16-year-old Will to his best female friend Bean as they settle in for a Duke Of Edinburgh award camp-out somewhere in the countryside around Oxford. The duo are playing truth-or-dare and waiting for Bean’s boyfriend and Will’s closest mate Dean to show up. But Dean is late. When the reason for his absence becomes apparent, we soon learn these two may not be kids, but they are not really adults either.
Tamsin Rees’ 65-minute two-hander Cheer Up Slug is best at capturing the profound, all-encompassing emotional intensity of teenage friendships, and the sense of devastation teens feel when their buddies turn out to be less reliable than they first appear. Where it is less effective is in exploring issues of consent, particularly the argument that boys are brought up with a sense of male entitlement, one that empowers them to script every interaction with girls to their own advantage. Consent is certainly an important topic, but as anyone who has ever been around teenagers (or watched a Hollywood horror movie) knows, 16-year-olds sometimes make really dumb decisions. Even for the post me-too generation, a brief miss-judged attempt at a kiss with a best friend is normally not the end of the world.
The key problem here is that Rees makes their characters just too damn innocent, likeable, and geeky to make this story, and the journeys the characters are on, believable. Another problem is that the audience which would really benefit from hearing the message about consent, youngsters themselves, are unlikely to ever get to see this play. Adults generally know this stuff already.
Cheer Up Slug is not helped by a tepid first half that lacks momentum and focus. Waiting for the villainous Dean to show up feels a bit like waiting for Godot, without the comedy or pathos. The action perks up in the second half when revelations emerge, but by then it just does not feel like there is much at stake for two biscuit-munching adolescents goofing around with a bottle of rosé.
Charis Murray, bedecked in childish dungarees and ponytails, gives a solid and likeable performance as Bean, whose outward quirky exuberance hides inner turmoil. But somehow the character feels less mature and younger than her age suggests. Most 16-year-old girls are more interested in Instagram than carrying around a jar of slugs (the molluscs being a metaphor here for teenage innocence) in a backpack festooned with kids’ cartoon stickers. Jamie Patterson captures Will’s chaotic combination of adolescent naivety and overweening self-confidence with tremendous charm, but ultimately the character he portrays is too one-dimensional to be convincing.
Runs until 9 November 2022
2 Comments
I saw this production when it was first premiered in Newcastle at Live Theatre and I loved it so much I got a play text. I was so excited to hear a team were taking it on in London.
I have never commented on a review before but I feel so compelled to as I think that to minimise Will being a ‘dumb teenager making stupid decisions’ is completely wrong. Maybe you didn’t understand the piece, and maybe the play isn’t written with the intent of you being the targeted audience and that’s okay.
The moment where Will tries to kiss Bean after she’s just disclosed such a personal and horrid experience, for me and encapsulated how people can be vulnerable and it is misconstrued into a moment of connection and lust. And how Will took a moment where his best friend was vulnerable and his response was to make it sexual, after she disclosed. I feel it hits you in the face with how obvious the message is.
The powerful last scene of Bean in the dirt (maybe not part of this production as I didn’t see it) is a piece of theatre that will stay with me for a really long time.
I will go and read Cheer Up Slug again and laugh and cry at the absurdities of kids eating biscuits and drinking rose, but will be heartfelt at the raw emotion the writer presents and so clearly communicates through their play text.
I saw this review when it was published, and although I found it horrifying I wasn’t going to say anything. But I found I couldn’t get out of my head the fact that someone saw the production I saw and came away with this.
Frankly I feel shocked that someone could sit in the audience and watch what we all watched, and write that “16-year-olds sometimes make really dumb decisions” and that “even for the post me-too generation, a brief miss-judged attempt at a kiss with a best friend is normally not the end of the world.”. Saying that the “action perks up” as a character reveals an extremely traumatic event and then is assaulted by her friend is just sickening.
I was incredibly moved and affected by this production. Everyone around me was.