Seventeen (Seymour Centre) ★★★

Written by Matthew Whittet. Seymour Centre. 27 Sep – 19 Oct, 2024.

Matthew Whittet’s Seventeen gets its first Sydney revival since its debut at Griffin in 2015 (hot on the heels of a different revival production at Melbourne Theatre Company earlier this year) with a team of performers refusing to act their age.

It’s the last day of school and a group of friends, and two uninvited guests, party in the park, waiting for the new day to dawn. But these teenagers can’t handle their pilfered alcohol or their emotions, and soon all their hopes, fears and secrets are laid bare.

The central conceit of Seventeen is that the six teenagers are played by much older adults. This is a play about perspective, and the dissonance of having performers in their 60-70s playing much younger, haunts the simple story. Time is both cruel and calming, making the moments that feel sharp in puberty seem mellow in reflection.

It’s this duality that makes Seventeen something special. While the characters are full of nervous energy, fueled by their anticipation of the future, the audience also reads a layer of melancholy and regret from the older performers. Some of the teenager’s concerns are charmingly trivial compared to what is to come, while others strike at a deeper sense of loss. It begs the question, if you could go back to when you were 17, would you do anything differently?

The introduction of Tom (Noel Hodda) carrying a letter that he wrote to his “future self” a mere six years prior is a time capsule in itself. We change so much in a few years that the gap between an 11 year old and a 17 year old feels larger than that between 17 and 70. It’s also a reminder of how little life these characters have lived despite the seismic event happening to them as they leave school.

Most of the cast manage to evoke this youthfulness to the point you stop thinking about their actual ages and it’s fun watching seemingly mature adults channel the exuberance and arrogance of adolescence. Of the ensemble the two stand outs are Di Adams as the attractive and popular Sue, a mix of casual confidence and surging emotions; and Katrina Foster as Edwina, Sue’s sharp and bookish best friend who struggles to reconcile her head and her heart. 

Not all of the story revelations get the necessary runway to land convincingly and some of the costuming choices scream middle-age rather than teen. When the full cast are onstage the action can be unfocused, but is on much firmer ground as the group breaks off into various pairs and the real conversations start to happen. Even at a zippy 80min duration it feels like there’s room to tighten.

For all the high school drama and the somewhat elegiac tone, Seventeen offers a warm and comforting lesson. As the sun rises on a new day, and the six characters head off to lead their new, different lives, we know that on some level they will grow to become older, wiser adults. After all, we’ve seen a version of their future selves already.