Review: Too Much, Too Young at Washington Arts Centre

“It Ain’t Very Comfortable Mr Gove”

Too Much, Too Young

WashingtonArts Centre

3 July 2014.

Written & Performed by Jack Bennett

Artistic support Chris Thorpe and Daniel Bye

Produced by ARC, Stockton

Everyone had to make decisions at school. Some of those decisions still affect us in adult life. So why do impulsive teenagers get told to make important decisions such as GCSE choices whilst struggling with the mental battles that come with puberty? Jack Bennett too had a run in with his geography teacher: Keep going to those Band Practices that Mr Cope ran or rehearse for a non-speaking part in a local play. 

Too Much, Too Young is a one man show about education and all that’s wrong with it.  The show starts with a combination of some modern teaching pedagogy as the audience is told the show will be visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. To make a point the handy torches that were distributed at the start are used to make a memory of a stranger sat nearby.

The show explores the reasons behind why education is in the state it is from the 1880s when it was first made compulsory, through the Butler Act of the 1940s, New Labour and the current direction under Michael Gove. The trouble with education is that it is preparing kids for a future that is very uncertain. Whether it is driverless cars or nanobots being inserted in our brains to enable to play games or live in a virtual world – we simply don’t know what the future holds for our kids.  Essentially the questions need to be “who is education for & is it fit for that purpose?”

Jack Bennett engages the audience with torches, Twister and an array of mini-whiteboards. His passion for an education that never ends effervesces across. This is another engaging play at the Arts Centre that makes you think & question your reality. Just like 2012s “Best In The World” the show is well worth seeing for that very reason.

This review was written by Stephen Oliver for Jowheretogo PR. Follow Jo on twitter @jowheretogo, Stephen @panic_c_button or like Jowheretogo on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Jowheretogo 

Twitter: www.twitter.com/JackGeoffActor

Website: www.jackbennett.co.uk

Tour dates:

2nd July      7pm             ARC, Stockton

3rd July       7.30pm        Arts Centre Washington

6th July       5pm             The HUB, Leeds

8th July       7.30pm        Camden People's Theatre, London

9th July       7.30pm        Camden People's Theatre, London

11th July      8pm            The Maltings, Berwick-upon-Tweed

Spring 2015                     UK Tour

Preview: Too Much Too Young at Washington Arts Centre

Why do we have education?

Too Much Too Young

Washington Arts Centre

Thursday 3 July 2014

Jack Bennett wrestles with two identities, long lost extra-curricular activities, endless life paths and one qualm with the education system in his first solo show at Arts Centre Washington on Thursday 3 July.

In Too Much Too Young, Jack seeks to explore the flaws in an education system which demands big decisions from teenagers at a young age by asking some pretty big questions; what is learning for? Why all the rush? And if all of the politicians and education experts are so smart, how come they never agree on the best way to do things?

In this charming but occasionally acerbic examination Jack holds up the practices of the UKeducation system against what other countries do, what experts think and what politicians think, while talking about how the choices of teenagers are restricted, and how we shouldn’t let that happen. 

Jack Bennett is an actor who’s worked for the National Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, the New Vic, and the Reduced Shakespeare Company. He wrote, produced and featured in the silent film The Busker & The Coin, and has recently completed touring with Curious Directive and in Daniel Bye’s How to Occupy an Oil Rig.

 

Jack Bennett will fill your belly with fire, your mind with rage and your mouth with giggles with moments of passion, raised voices and audience interaction as he un-muddles an intricate identity crisis.

Awarded a Suitcase Prize Special Commendation at Pulse Festival 2014

 

Too Much Too Young comes to Arts Centre Washington on Thursday 3 July, 7.30pm.  Tickets are £8.50 / £6 (conc) and are available from http://www.artscentrewashington.co.uk/production-details.aspx?id=527 or by calling the box office on 0191 219 3455.