Review: Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon at Southwark Playhouse

Instructions For a Teenage Armageddon at the Southwark Playhouse is an updated version of a solo performance by Rosie Day, who is both writer and performer for the show. Directed by Georgie Staight it is bitter yet hopeful, it is a social satire and a coming-of-age story that we all can relate to at some level.

The 75-minute show is a series of monologues from a witty teenage girl who has lost her older sister and tries to cope with death, isolation and betrayal, by looking at her life through the prism of earning scout badges. It reminds me of British teenage all-time favourite series, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, but upgraded for the new generation, and given a strong female lead.

The whole show is a gripping psychological portrait of a typical teenager who deals with too many adult problems, all on her own. Hiding pain and disappointment behind sarcastic comments and fake ‘I’m fine’’s, she carries on until truly terrible things happen. This is a cautionary tale.

The topics the show touches on – from the death of loved ones, and divorce and separation of the parents, to social isolation and bullying in school, peer pressure, and sexual assault – are all timeless yet very modern and relevant. In recent years, we’ve been hearing many discussions about these things made public, and this play is another step in opening up a conversation and giving the victim a voice.

This solo show is filled with immersive elements that allow you to feel like a full cast performing for you. Talented Rosie Day makes vivid impersonations of other people who surround her character, and the video series gives faces to some of the key characters. Video and in-person performance go hand in hand, with the Day interacting with people on the screen and making them part of the action.

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Light and sound help us to travel with the character between different locations – house, school, club, mall, hospital. We feel how she feels, and sees the world in her way.

According to Rosie Day, Instructions For a Teenage Armageddon is for everyone who is a young person, knows a young person, or simply was a young person once. While taking a viewpoint of a teenage girl, it touches on issues we all may have to deal with at some point in our lives. And that is a valuable lesson of self-acceptance and self-love as the way to get through and help those around us.

Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon is at Southwark Playhouse until 5th March 2022.