You Can't Tell Anyone, Canberra Youth Theatre, Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre, August 10-20

 

Joanna Richards' play is the best premiere work I've seen from Canberra Youth Theatre, a thriller with a lot going on underneath the surface as 8 teens, mostly in that period between Year 12 and beginning University, gather for one final party, and find themselves drawn into a brutal game that they can't escape from. There's a real sense that Richards knows these characters intimately and has thought about what makes them tick, and about how to push them up against each other to maximum effect as they push buttons they shouldn't, cascading crises and tensions higher and higher. Richards has been a powerful stage presence in the past as an actor, and she now shows powerful skills as a writer, giving all the cast strong engaging roles to play in the drama. There are some familiar elements here (you can spot one device from Stoppard, and another from Bunel), but they're combined in a way that feels new and invigorating. 

Director Caitlin Baker manages the complex play with aplomb, as the story switches focus across the group, including multiple simultaneous conversations across the stage as the group divides and recombines, without ever losing focus or lessening the tension.  There's a real sense of lived-in-character performances from the entire cast - making everybody immediately recongisable yet complex, with multiple motivations going on.She brings out all the strengths in Richards' script and serves the work very well. 

Ella Buckley is transformed from her charmingly quirky performances in such plays as "Crimes of the Heart" and"Brighton Beach Memoirs" to play the tense, driven Gwen to perfection. Jessi Gooding absolutely suits the role of the deeply thoughtful, questioning, sweet-natured but willing to bite back Willa. Lachlan Houen steals laughs with every line as the dry, standoffish Benny but is also able to invest deeply when things get emotional. Breanna Kelly is a sweet presence as the friend who's left but is able to bring the darkness when required. Emily O'Mahoney's youth and sibling rivalry pushes all the right buttons as the drama accumulates around her and ultimately captures her. Isaiah Pritchard makes a character who could be an unappealing caricature into something much more engaging, his surface goofiness giving way to pain with aplomb. Jake Robinson pushes the malleable Jeremy into increasing stresses as he's required to adjust to the escalating circumstances again and again. And Paris Scharkie as the edgy Kat knows when to bring the vulnerability when it comes through. 

This is one of the best two new plays I've seen this year, tying with David Finnegan's "Scenes from the Climate Era" - it shows a group of new talents playing as well and as strongly as any of the more established performers I've seen this year, and it's absolutely great theatre. Well worth catching if you can.