"Once and for All, etc." Studies Teenagers in the Wild

Monolingual speakers of English probably wouldn't line up to see a show called "Pubers Bestaan Niet," but the English title of the show does no favors either. "Once and for All We're Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen," though, is one of the better performance art pieces around. Lasting just about an hour, this Belgian look at teenagers being teenagers touches just about every base in the most tumultuous years of anyone's life. If the Ontroerend Goed tour is passing through, get a ticket.

The 13 kids who perform could be anyone's. Their actions, from the boys snapping each other with balloons to the girls giggling and preening, could occur in any high school cafeteria anywhere. There are few spoken lines; instead the show is merely adolescents being adolescents. Loud, silly, annoying, charming, and charged with way too much energy for their own good, or that of their guardians.

The show isn't quite mime, indeed, it is rather loud, but one sees the story rather than hears it. The same six or seven minutes are repeated through out. The first time is to acquaint the audience with the piece. The second is identical but is interrupted midway by what sounds like a ticking clock (the march of time). The third time, the kids mock ballet. The other times it is done peri-erotically, drunkenly and finally bigger than life.

There are a few lines addressed to the audience, and the young Belgians are deft enough in English to be understood; whether anyone understands teenagers is another matter entirely. One kids addresses the audience saying, "Everything has been done before. But not by me. And not now." Another, whose make-out session (snogging to British readers) is interrupted, says "Can we do it again? Can't we carry on without the music?" Yes, its called "adulthood."

In the program for the performance at New York's New Victory Theatre, the section "About the Cast" says:

We're gonna do a play about teenagers who feel like a lot more than just teenagers.
We're gonna do a play about the utter chaos in our heads, the urge to go far too far.
We'll break down the barriers between the way we are onstage and off.
We'll update the definition of puberty.
We get on your nerves, but for once you'll understand why.
We will make all other art on adolescence superfluous.
You'll think we're super cool.