It's no fun being a teenager in The Fat Girl Gets a Haircut

10 April 2012

Oh dear. I feel wretched giving a piece as obviously well-intentioned as this a critical kicking but the brutal truth remains: unless you have a personal interest in any of the 11 teenage performers, the fat girl, her haircut and all those other stories should be given a very wide berth indeed.

This devised piece, which sits awkwardly between theatre and live art, is the brainchild of artist/director Mark Storor, who has worked with a group of London-based 12- to 15-year-olds since October 2009 to concoct a series of 12 scenarios based on the teenagers' lived experiences. For the most part these are frustratingly elliptical, wordless tableaux, no doubt laden with meaning and symbolism for the performers themselves, but wearyingly inaccessible for outsiders.

The pervasive mood of the piece is one of melancholy and introspection and the plangent ambient music of musical director Jules Maxwell and the wistful animations of Babis Alexiadis only add to this. Wafty episode bleeds into wafty episode and we're forced to wonder whether teenagers have any fun at all now.

The Boy Who Cried for the World, which features someone covered from head to toe in white paper getting into a translucent paddling pool where two other cast members pour bowls of water over his head, suggests that they don't. The wonderful Alexus Burke, who arrives in a welcome torrent of words to tell us about her crushes on two teachers and James Franco, and the horror of having a "hot" dad, restores our faith temporarily. The Roundhouse's commendable work with young people will surely prove more fruitful soon.

Until May 7. (0844 482 8008. roundhouse.org.uk)

The Fat Girl Gets A Haircut And Other Stories
Roundhouse Camden
Chalk Farm Road, London, NW1 8EH

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