Orange Tree Youth Theatre presents Forty-Five Minutes (From Streatham Guardian)

Orange Tree Youth Theatre presents Forty-Five Minutes

3:38pm Monday 11th March 2013 in Freetime By Amy Dyduch

Young actors from across the borough will present Forty-Five Minutes, a play involving teenagers in a frantic rush to complete their university applications.

Written by 20-year-old Anya Reiss, the play details the moment a group of students find out the Ucas deadline is wrong and realise they have only 45 minutes to submit their applications.

Director Corinne Meredith says audiences will be kept on their toes by the fast nature of the play.

She says: “When it starts they rush in and they have just been told by their teacher about the deadline and then the tension starts to build straight away and they get irritated with each other.”

The cast comprises eight members of the Orange Tree Youth Theatre, who are presenting the play as part of the National Theatre’s Connections Festival.

Meredith says: “They are great, they are really enthusiastic and have really gotten hold of the text.

“Because it’s in one space for the whole time there’s nothing else for them to worry about other than their characters and their acting.

“But it does come with its difficulties as well because the text is written very short and sharp – exactly how they would speak.”

Forty-Five Minutes is one of 10 texts available to more than 200 schools and theatre groups across the country, who will perform at their home venues and then and at the 420-seat Greenwich Theatre in May, where it may be chosen to be part of the festival.

Meredith says the play, which contains bad language, will resonate with teenage audience members.

She says: “I hope it would appeal to them because it is about their lives and they can relate to it.

“Three or four of them have actually just done the Ucas forms so it is a very real experience for them.”

Forty-Five Minutes; The Orange Tree Theatre; March 16 at 3pm or March 17 at 7pm; £5; orangetreetheatre.co.uk or 020 8940 3633.