NYT bring 1950s to life with style

BLUE MOON OVER POPLAR
Soho Theatre

THE National Youth Theatre is 50 years young next month.
To celebrate the anniversary, and its relentless success story that began with Henry V in Toynbee Hall in 1956, the NYT has produced a sextet of plays marking each decade from the 1950s.
Blue Moon Over Poplar, set in the 1950s, screamed ‘cool’ from the word go as five young girls and a bloke burst on stage sizing up the audience and tapping their toes to the rock and roll beat.
The performances had front, as you would expect from a youth theatre production.
But I wasn’t expecting the quality of the dialogue, both spontaneous and wise.
These were believable balanced individuals, each their own riddle, with personal traits and private woes.
Peter (Mark Finbow) plays the progressive teddy boy, conspicuous in his snappy suit. He falls for the Jamaican Margaret (Zawe Ashton) – they empathise with each other’s feelings of alienation.
Under a starless night, Peter reveals his anguish over his brother’s suicide. Struggling to cope with the sickening permanence of death, he begins to trivialise all around him.
Relationships, family and his political anxieties are overwhelmed.
High on a cocktail of drugs and drink, his dark sexual urges are revealed.
The NYT has a wealth of experience and it shows in every department.
The direction, performances, script and set miraculously transform the theatre into a jive ball with a live ensemble that had the audience’s toes tapping.
My only gripe is that it sometimes felt like you were watching a high quality drama lesson.
The performances were a little academic, masterfully contrived.
I travelled to the Soho Theatre on my high horse, expecting little. But this was one of the best shows I have seen this year, rightly met with telling raised hand-clapping and a babble of approval.
There are five more decades under the NYT microscope. Watch this space.
Until September 2
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