Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

Cast: Katie George, Lauren Foster.

If the 1980s was a decade of direct contrasts between social hedonism and the reality of the action taken communities as one by one the life blood of decades old services and the jobs that were dismantled and the people left to rot on the dole, then the mid to late 90s were a period in which lies and deceptions were given public backing as a kind of false hope of a fairer society was raised like a mantra, a chant aired and repeated and one that has joined the 1980s debauchery enjoyed by some as nothing more than an exposing of the personal greed that we all believe is ours to enjoy by right.

It is often missed by modern theatre audiences, the scene before the play begins, a reflection perhaps of the hoped for anticipation gathering speed, but the approach of having the actors already on stage in character, perhaps doing nothing but waiting as if for a more direct cue, is lost amongst the greetings and excited handshakes of the evening; arguably a direct contrast, a mirroring of the 90s decade’s preference for style over substance. Quite often, this moment missed means nothing, it is an application, a garnish to whet the appetite, but not so in the world of Pop, not Abbi and Beth as they stare almost with teenage disdain, with anger, and perhaps out of boredom, at the flowing of life milling around them, a scene before the play that encapsulated the beauty of the moment to come.

What is Pop, or the ability to see it as what frames your experience, without having gone through the dichotomy of your teenage age years, without discovering who you are, experimenting with certain looks and being disturbed by your own feelings of loathing, inadequacy and love without it being set to the soundtrack of the years where anything goes but also set down by the rules in which you must rely on to keep you from doing damage to those around you.

Friendship in such circumstances is perhaps governed by what you do when you look back upon it in later life, how you react to the mistakes and the lies told, the moments in which you should have believed someone, and still had the pleasure of hearing Blur, Elastica and experienced the whole Brit-Pop scene.

For L.I.P.A students Katie George and Lauren Foster, their portrayal of Abbi and Beth, seen through the eyes of the bored teenagers with dreams to the emergence of the mid 20’s life as careers take them to different places, is grounded in the realism of today’s social aspect, the damning of an entire generation just because it doesn’t fit with the narrative that those who went before saw fit to suggest they provided, anarchy but with need and a love. A play that bounces, that understands that though the Pop bubble may burst as certain revelations come to light, what can not be replaced is the joy of having experienced life, a personal hedonism coupled with potential sorrow, that is the truth of Pop culture and one that beautifully captured in this particular play.

Ian D. Hall