The Young Ones

It's a tough call. I went along to see this version of the 'first time' on stage production of ‘The young ones’ and was blown away by the set. I truly believe that the set was good and destroyed as 'The Young Ones' did in the early eighties. However, I’m not one to cause negativity on productions that are first a television series and then adapted to stage. One tends to go to a production expecting a reproduction of the original. Vivian caught the mannerisms’ of the character, but slipped in and out. I thought Rik was wrong. Rik’s character is full of energy, even when Rik isn’t speaking, he is meant to be on edge and unpredictable. If you are to copy or mimic a character, one must study the character. This I felt wasn’t the case. I personally feel that the ‘Actor’ playing the character of Rik was simply out of his league. The essence of Rik is meant to be energized and totally in full focus and command the whole time. Rick Mayall who wrote the script along with Lisa and Ben intended the script to be revolved around Rik. That was the point. The comedy series really belongs to Rik. That’s what people expect. I have spoken to Nigel Planner about the days of the young ones and he quoted ‘The series was ‘Rik’. For me Rik was missing. The essence of the character Rik just wasn’t there. Certain moments mimicked –yes, but the essence wasn’t. Mike the cool person wasn’t cool, he was a wandering actor, he often followed his fellow actors around the set, and instead he should have just sat down and been ‘cool’. His accent didn’t help. He didn’t sound like he was from south east London. He portrayed him in a fine Australian way, Which isn’t Mike. Mike is meant to be shifty, quick witted and fast paced. The Mike I saw was too slow and didn’t capture the character of Mike ‘The Cool person’. The laugh lines were dropped and not pushed through enough... The actors didn’t press on the times of the early 80’s Britain. Yes, smashing up a set is fun, but we can all do that. What annoyed me most were the in jokes of Kalgoorlie and the mention of performing an amateur show, which it was. Perth audiences where left wondering what the in jokes meant. The pre-build up of the show was too much… Getting the president of the club up on stage was too much… They built the production up so much that when the show finally did start (LATE) it was like a lead balloon slowly deflating. The production itself was a brave attempt of an iconic British sitcom, but sadly it didn’t live up to its hype. To tour Australia as you say, would need drastic changes. The name itself would sell tickets. When leaving the theatre, the actors ‘still in costume’ were waiting outside to greet people, but instead of being in character, they had washed there hands of the ‘Young Ones’ and returned to their original dialect of Australia, which broke the magic of what the show was about. Sadly this didn’t work for me. Milking the audience and laughing on stage is all very well and fine, but when you know the show so well, you also know that those gags are not improvised and I was left wondering if the Actors really got the script and the context. The ques were far too slow and the pace the same. By the time the audience left the theatre it was 22.50pm. Far too long for a show that was meant to start at 20.00pm The set was great. But, to me they didn’t quite capture the essence of what it was like to live through those times as a ‘Young One’.