Enough
Enough
Platform Youth Theatre
fortyfive downstairs
11 July 2008
When set the challenge of writing a musical in three months, who are you going to call? Well, Wally Gunn and Wes Snelling, of course, according to Platform Youth Theatre. Their latest show, Enough, is an entirely new musical set around the idea of the third horeman of the apocalypse – Famine.
Set in and before an apocalyptic Melbourne, Enough charts the story of Atalanta, a young girl struggling for her life, and the young man who is given a chance by the horsemen to avert the catastrophe. With strong themes of social responsibility and fate, the show doesn’t pull its punches, with raw storytelling and damning discussion of the state of the world.
An innovative semi-thrust staging makes the show very engaging for the audience, with performers retreating to the seating banks to sit with the audience rather than hiding in wings or offstage. The staging allowed the audience to feel immersed in the performance, a nice touch for a show that is, at its heart, a call to action.
With an entirely youth cast, the show is both challenging and well-executed. Special mention must go to Camille Lopez, whose depiction of displaced child Atalanta was heart-wrenchingly powerful from her first unorthodox entrance, and to Jessica Edwards, who (as Haya, The Green Death Rider) was beautifully cold and detached.
Music for the show was well-used and presented, although lyrically rather blatant, with characters speaking their thoughts to the audience rather than expounding on them. The musical highlight of the show for me, however, was Jessica Edwards’ self-penned Darkness to the Light, which suited her and the mood of the show very well.
With a ten-year history of working with young people to produce theatre, Platform Youth Theatre has an impressive history of innovative and experimental theatre. Enough, as the first in a series of musical theatre pieces around the idea of the apocalypse, is a strong and exciting continuation of that trend.