The Trials, Canberra Youth Theatre, Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre, 19-26 May 2023

 

Canberra Youth Theatre has been reaching out for more provocative, modern, interesting writing for the last few years now - using their youth casts to tell contemporary stories that tie into themes that are absolutely worthy of adult interest. In this case, it's a recent English drama, about the climate crisis and the almost inevitable judgment that will be laid down on our behaviour during the current era - when the science is known, the solutions are available and we're still living as if it's not going to happen. Three adult performers (Michael Sparks, Zsusi Soboslav, and Elaine Noon) play the defendants in a story where, after the cataclysm, those deemed Climate Criminals are judged by a jury of people in their early-to-late-teens. The format is simple - each have a five-or-so-minute speech justifying themselves, then the twelve deliberate guilty or not guilty. The debates are not simple or one sided, and the participants are passionate - some enraged and full of vengeance, some unwilling to judge people by the standards of another era, and the dynamics of each debate turn on those personalities. 

Dawn King has written a dark piece that most adult audiences will find confronting - it's inevitable you will put yourself in the hot seat and wonder how future generations would judge you (yes, I would probably be guilty). Luke Rogers production gives it intensity and power from the second you enter the theatre - there's a tense atmosphere that only grows with the assistance of Patrick Haaesler's tense soundscape and Ethan Hamill's sharp lighting. But it's not all grimness - there's light and shade in the interactions of the jurors, as some engage deeply in the task, some have a terrifying relish for vengeance, others try to find space for compassion, and the stakes inevitably get more and more personal as we go on. The jury scenes have some resemblance to "Twelve Angry Men", without the amateur detective elements and with more balance across the cast (there isn't really a central character the way that "Twelve Angry" revolves largely around Juror number 8), and the chance to see the accused removes this from simple abstraction to something tougher. 

It's a play that reflects both ways - both looking at the guilt of my contemporaries, and the limitations of the vengeance sought by the next generation. It's confronting, thoughtful, emotionally powerful and absolutely worth seeing.