Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Nadia Anim Mohammed Noor, Aaron Barker, Rachel Berry, Natalie Bedowska, Jacob Lee, James Bibby, Tiegan Byrne, William Catterall, Isobel Catterall, John Collins, Nick Crosbie, Daniel Fitzgerald, Lucy Harris, Heidi Henders, Poppy Hughes, Sean Hyland, Aaron Kehoe, Charlotte Larkin, Nina Levy, Scott Lewis, George Lomax-Ford, Niamh McCarthy, Hannah McGowan, Kathryn McGurk, Keeley Ray, Elliot Reeves-Giblin, Kaila Sharples, Janes O’Neil, Mark Powell, Jamie Pye, Nathan Russell, Harry Sargent, Curtis Wilson.

When it comes to the voice of the population, the one that seems to get overlooked time and time again is that of the young. Whether it because they feel disenfranchised or because the voice they use is seen as not being relevant, a hangover from Pre World War Two where life was not meant to be discussed by those under a certain age and the feeling of the patronised “You wouldn’t understand” comes hoving into view.

The date is irrelevant, it is the mode of thinking that is outdated and little by little, certainly when you compare the desires and thoughts of the class of the 2015 electorate compared to say those in 1992 or beforehand, certainly have a lot more focus on what is wrong in the world and it sometimes takes youthful radical thought in which to pave the way; even if it is just installing the idea into others.

For the Young Everyman Playhouse Theatre group, directed by Matt Rutter and Chris Tomlinson, the present is very much in the minds of all on stage as they performed their own devised creation, Until They Kick Us Out.  

Politics infiltrates every section of our lives and yet those under a certain age are never seemingly truly engaged in the bigger issues, unless the need to pander to their overwhelming and stirring potential sees the leaders of the parties of the U.K. need an opportunity to drive home a particular message. Until They Kick Us Out inverses that thought and takes the young actors through the process of explaining why there is truly a need for change in the way the country sees politics and the power it has to manipulate. From the point that at the last election, less than 51 percent of the age group voted and less than half of those were women, despite the fact that in the last century women were prepared to risk it all for the chance to have a say. If they weren’t killed by the King’s horse at Epsom, visually represented on stage with sublime quality, then being force fed by the men who were meant to protect them and the revelations contained therein, are ones that should be seen by all the young of Liverpool as the 2015 election comes ever nearer.

As with every YEP (Young Everyman Playhouse Theatre) production, the grasp of hitting home hard, especially to those in the audience over the age where they might stagger blindly into voting purely out of habit or in the “family tradition”,  is one that just has the effect of feeling like being the most important production you will come across. It is the youthful energy and realism of the sometimes forgotten voice that is missed. As they are keen and right to point out, it is their generation that will have to sort it out and it might take them to get to the point of where we all stand now before it can even be looked upon as gaining momentum.

For YEP there is no turning back, they have proudly made their statement, they are determined to carry it through and with the way they presented Until They Kick Us Out, there is no doubt to whom the future belongs, if any of the generation that currently use the despicable Victorian maxim of children should be seen and not heard, can finally be eradicated once and for all.

A generous and powerful performance, one designed with great skill and thought to ask for a different way of life.

Ian D. Hall.