★★★✰✰
We all remember our bittersweet feelings towards school. For many, it’s their only opportunity to spend every single day messing about with your closest friends. We see the same energy from the 18-25 Bush Young Company’s ensemble in Kit Withington’s As We Face The Sun. As part of Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writer’s Group, Withington gives us a promising piece about adolescence and remembrance. Katie Greenall and Linette Linton’s direction is meticulous and gives every member of a strong, dynamic cast to show their stuff.
We begin with a nostalgic harkening back to the good old days of Taio Cruz and Bruno Mars. The ensemble comes with a youthful vigour that makes the first half hour fly by. Sharing earpods, making Miss’s life a little bit harder, and the whole world resting the touch of a hand defines the secondary school experience. But when a school coach crashes, killing a friend from the group, they must learn how to grieve and remember Leila in their own way.
Ten years later, the ensemble is throwing the same party, with the same music and the same “16” balloons hanging in the background. But the sweetness of the past has grown into a stale gathering of friends that have long drifted apart. For Maymuna Abdi’s mother of two, this is her only foreseeable chance for a night out with her friends. For the understated Kerrica Kendall, it no longer helps her grieve but forces a sense of togetherness within the group that has already passed. However, for Sara Dawood’s Evie, she clings onto this party every year to remember the death of her best friend. It was the ritual that inserted her back into normality and she is afraid of what it would mean to abandon it.
Our group of friends over a varied range of personalities. James Walsh’s Cole offers a sensitive and wistful music-lover who yearns for his simple childhood. Dawood especially stands out as she juggles the complexities of young grief. Another notable mention is Maryse Baya’s unmatched ability to stir up a room. Even in her character’s most confused moments, her comedic timing lightened up the most dour scenes.
Despite Baya’s own command over the beats of As We Face The Sun, pacing is an issue. The story itself lingers on nostalgia for the majority of the play. As a result, the takeaway of finding different ways to mourn feels like a rushed afterthought. The insistence to dwell on the past could have been expressed more succinctly in order to make the larger point at the end.
All in all, As We Face The Sun is a promising look into what Withington might have in store. It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on the cast as each of them stood out in a crowd of 14. The ferocity of the cast carried this story, flaws and all, with soul and youthful zest.
Words by Elizabeth Sorrell
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