It Only Ever Happens in the Movies

Peacock Theatre, Dublin Previews Aug 22-23 18/15 Opens Aug 24-27 8pm 25/20 (Sat mat 2.30pm) 20/18 01-8787222 abbeytheatre.ie

For the past few years the National Youth Theatre have rummaged through the classics for plays with a youthful sensibility. Love on the run in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Tempestuous theatricality in The Seagull. The disjointed wanderings and chaotic sadness of A Dream Play.

Now they return to the Peacock with a wholly new work, which trades the sturdiness of the canon for a fresh take on enduring concerns. Or does it?

Devised by a cast of 16 youth theatre members with director Mikel Murfi, this production takes other unshakeable references as its inspiration; the long procession of romance movies in which – at their most iconic – boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and girl proclaims that she’s just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.

If that sounds a little knowing, this is the post-Juno generation, more archly and ironically aware of pop culture than any other. So, when the terminally-single 17-year-old cineaste Derek seeks a girlfriend, he steals scenes and moves from Tootsie, Gone With The Wind, Casablancaand Notting Hill(nobody said he had flawless taste).

Old movies and youth theatre? They don’t seem like obvious bedfellows.Then again, opposites attract.

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