"Saplings" looks at a mixture of young people who encounter the criminal justice system in various ways (either directly as perpetrators or as family members of people in prison). Four actors play a variety of figures on an institutional grey set, co-designed by Angela Doherty and Morgan Moroney and lit strikingly by Moroney. The scenes are linked by a hip-hop soundtrack by Michael Weir. There's strong performances across all four actors- Sam Harmon perhaps most strikingly in a monologue that ties together Mi-Goreng noodles, family dysfunction and a sense of purposelessness, but there's also strength that comes from Malyan Blair in a scene about his fear of what comes after prison, from Danny Howard as
This is rough-edged material, writer Hannah Belansky drawing from direct contact with young people in the system and reflecting their raw experience back in her writing - and director Abbie-lee Lewis gives it a striking, physical production with the occasional moment of beauty and warmth in among the rougher edges. There are a couple of issues with audibility here and there - not sure whether actors are simply going at too fast a pace or if they're letting authentic language clash with diction too- but for the most part the material comes across strong and impactful, in a production that holds a lot of interest to anyone who's interested in younger voices.
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