The initiation, Canberra youth theatre, Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre, 16-19 June

 

On the hills of Black Mountain, six teenagers gather - only two of them are currently friends, with another a former friend til they started going to seperate schools. One of them seems to know more than she's telling, and soon they're all drawn into a sinister ritual that will draw more out of them than they're expecting in the course of one long night.

Cathy Petcoz's script slips between three genres, having elements of teen slasher,  straight teen drama and mythology. It doesn't always juggle all three successfully - most teen slashers tend to include moments of deliberate humor to defray the tendency for the horror to get giggles if not carefully managed, and this doesn't quite get around the audience giggle-factor. Petcoz is clearly aware of how classic teen slashers have fairly retrograde attitudes of sexuality and gender presentation, but here she's mostly just pointing out where the behaviour is problematic rather than feeling like the problems are being engaged with and combatted meaningfully. There's elements of the straight teen drama that more effectively raises the creeps inherent in simply being a teenager than the genre elements do - these are fears that don't go away as simply once the story is over and the monster is banished. A year after "Little Girls alone in the woods", this is another play that plays in some of the same mythological space, albiet less comfortably. 

There's strong meat here for the six performers to engage with - in particular, Lantsamy Carruthers impresses, giving a spine to the narrative as the instigating character - Tara Sexena is as close as this story gets to a "final girl" and takes her to places that most of her breatheren don't get to. Juniper Potter gives her character a rounded independent strength. Sylvie Burke and Zoe Harris take two roles which could be close to cliche as the private-school meanies and give them a few more dimensions. Harry Ziano is effectively befuddled and vulernable as the sole boy of the team.

Petcoz is doing double duty as writer and director - I do think a seond set of eyeballs may have wrestled more effectively with some of the challenges of doing this kind of genre mashup, but it's effective direction, buidling tension as the show progresses.

There's meat in this show but I don't know that this has come out of the developement process entirely clean - it does feel like some elements of the script are there more to engage with dramaturgical notes than to actually clarify and focus the narrative, and it's led to a script that is maybe trying to do a little too much - it's unfortunate that this has to be the show that follows a script as tried and tested as "Dags" for CYT and it's possible that any show after that one is going to look a little more raw, I hope that this does get a life beyond the courtyard as I think the young performers are well showcased here, but I do wish that the mix worked a little better for me.