18 May RENT-A-FRIEND – an excellent teenage performance

Theatre review
Tportal.hr

RENT-A-FRIEND – an excellent teenage performance

By Igor Ružić
16th November, 2011

The biggest value of this performance is that it neither preaches nor focuses on just one problem, which is why it really is theatre and not a mere chat room turned into a performance, or a “case study” enriched with dramatic play in order to be more easily swallowed.
First loves, searching for one’s self, teenage angst and the confrontations with parents who are far from ideal, everything is included in this hour and a half long performance according to a network structure: cascading, partial, superficial, manifold, and sometimes, on purpose, not strictly veritable.
It supports Internet surfing for the purpose of acquiring information, it teaches that chat, even when it is chit-chat, is still not cheat, it measures time as if it really cares while substituting real people by the green monitor glare. Still, it (also) supports the old-fashioned walk in the park, first kisses on a bench, attempts to write a poem… and whatever else is usually done during the “in-between” years.
If an audience should have a performance it deserves, then Rent-a-Friend is spot on. Watching it through a pair of non-teenage eyes can either leave you baffled or lift you up on the wings of nostalgia.