Bold, unapologetic, funny and real – See You Next Tuesday is the contemporary bildungsroman tale you didn’t realise you needed (with a bit more kick than what you studied in high school). Written and produced by Sam Nerida and directed by Alexa Taylor, this comedy explores the distastes of dating, sexual empowerment, and what overthinking sounds like, through the life of seventeen-year old Evie.
Evie was portrayed simultaneously by three actresses – ‘Evies’ – who worked in such unison that they were reminiscent of the three fates in Greek mythology: like the three fates, each subconscious influenced Evie to a different path. One was concerned with her and her brother’s safety; another was more rebellious; and third, sexually forthright. By having three powerful, unapologetic women represent one body the role gave rise to each actress representing different sets of thoughts and feelings.
Furthermore, by having three women portray one body, the plot felt more open and accessible; the struggles and realities of adolescence were captured to emphasise a common (though not generic) experience, instead of isolating the story to the stage.
These distinct dialogues brought to life the cacophonous nature of emotions and decision making, and accurately represented the instantaneous creation and collisions of synaptic pathways as lovely, chaotic, diverging and impassioned. The inability to focus on a single voice when all were speaking differently and at once was at times overwhelming, and in that way accurate to the feelings of overthinking and stress.
The intricacies of the show didn’t come from embellishments of props, setting or special effects, which centred the audience to focus on the actual story, characterisation and dialogue. The isolated feature of delicately floating props near the end neatly emphasised the power of suspended moments of thoughtful realisation amongst mundane chaos. However, the super power element to the plot, which allowed Evie to see behind and through the layers of objects, was simultaneously interesting and perplexing, and left me questioning its necessity or value to the overall show.
Scene changes were marked by the three characters swapping outfits, which cleverly sits within the cliché that ‘girls change their minds and moods like they change clothes.’ The lighting, simplistic and clever, reflected new locations and moods; a highlight here was the Facebook-blue hue that lit up a darkened surrounding when characters received messages (a kind of millennial bat signal).
See You Next Tuesday successfully provided insight into real conversations with one’s self, friends and family about the raw, messy nature of the emotional struggles that surround love, lust, puberty and relationships. The allusion to Judd Nelson’s Breakfast Club character, John Bender, reminded me of a Nelson quote that I felt was embodied by the show’s focus on the turmoil and empowerment (sexual, emotional, independent and otherwise) of adolescent experience. “Young alienation, disappointment and heartache, is all a part of the first real growing up that we do” (Judd Nelson).
Image credit: Floyd Perrin.
Words by Izabela Barakovska