On the 13th November, I was privileged to have got the opportunity to watch the Theatre Centre’s brand new production of Birds and Bees which was recorded prior to the most recent lockdown. There are only 4 main actors involved in the production and they are all teenagers. There is a limited set and the only things on stage are some tape to illustrate the boundaries of the classroom that it is set in and a few desks.
The production is about these 4 friends called Aaron, Leilah, Maisey and Billy who are all in detention. There had recently been an incident with each of Aaron and Maisey’s best friend’s. Their friend’s were together and they were sexting each other and the boyfriend got his phone taken and someone leaked those images to the whole school. Aaron and Leilah are together in a relationship, and Maisey is a prefect in the school ( Who ends up admitting that she is not in detention but she was instructed by the Headteacher to try and have a positive influence on everyone else in detention ) and then Billy is someone else who is in detention. It starts off with everyone finding Maisey really annoying however once they have all found a topic that they are all interested in they start to become really close friends. That topic is … Gender Rights. Maisey is trying to persuade the others to give a speech to the whole school the next day on gender rights and why sexting is so wrong however nobody really wants to do the speech. Aaron then gets a text saying that his best mate ( Jack who is the boyfriend ) is in hospital because of a drug overdose and this angers Aaron a lot because he wants to get to his mate as quickly as possible. Leilah who can get very anxious also gets anxious because she will be late to see her friend ( Chorell who is Jack’s girlfriend ). Eventually Maisey confesses that she is not in detention to everyone and everyone is a bit shocked. They all eventually agree to do the speech the next day apart from Billy who says that he doesn’t really feel like it.When detention is finally over, Leilah and Aaron rush to the hospital and Maisey and Billy then leave separately.
Overall, I was very impressed with the performance and would without a doubt give it 5 stars. I would like to thank the Theatre Company for providing us with a performance to watch and the Young Reporter Scheme for the Opportunity.
