Apples @ St Stephens

Apples is a raw, honest depiction of adolescent life in modern Britain. Although set in a council estate in Middlesbrough—where the kids may have to grow up quickly, where their problems and ways of coping may be more extreme—the excellent script deals with issues and contains characters to which almost all teenagers—or anyone who’s ever been a teenager—will be able to relate.

There’s Eve, the perky, popular blonde who was “born on a shooting star”, for whom everything always goes right—until her mother gets lung cancer, and she tries to block it out with alcohol and drugs. There’s sweet, innocent Adam, head over heels in love with Eve, but held back by his OCD and his petrifying shyness, no doubt a result of his constantly receiving a “grounding and pounding” from his dad. There’s Gary, the muscle-bound, sinister oaf with only one thing on his mind. When alcohol, ecstasy and acid are thrown into the mix, the characters collide with devastating consequences.

The absorbing storyline unfolds through a clever, humorous script, written in language that 15 year olds in the north of England would actually use: they’re constantly ending sentences with ‘like’ and describing everything as ‘mint’. The strong storyline and script are matched by the excellent quality of acting. Louis Roberts is especially impressive as Gary when tripping on acid at the school disco: he embodies paranoia, sweating, blinking, twitching, breathing heavily, his mouth hanging open.

The real strength of Apples, however, is its ability to portray that, underneath the drugs, sex, violence, foul language and teenage pregnancies, all young people want is to be happy and safe, to be in a relationship with a good person who will take care of them. Its equal focus on the sinister and the sweet aspects of adolescent life makes it, unlike so many plays about young people, unbiased, unpatronising and unaccusatory. Instead, Apples manages to be enlightening, enjoyable and—dare I say it?—endearing.