Trapping(s)

Trapping(s), like television hit Glee, uses music and dance to explore the theme of adolescence. Glee polarizes people. Many love it; some think it’s just awful.

Trapping(s) is just awful. From its opening cliché (“this is the first day of the rest of our lives”) through to its poor finale, there’s not one inspiring moment.

At first it’s hard to tell if this is a genuine production or some sort of joke. Though, since playing ineptitude for laughs requires exhaustive choreography, it soon becomes clear that this isn’t the case.

It’s bizarre that they’ve staged a dance show when so few of them can clap in time. Yet the routines are so unambitious this shouldn’t really matter. In one set piece the cast members balance books on their heads. Next some of them stand on a book – though not all of them as some fall off. It goes on.

In fairness the acting isn’t as bad as the dancing, but that’s not saying a lot. The script, however, is dreadful. Documentaries about hoodie violence present modern youth in a more favourable light. There’s no attempt to create any real characters and instead we’re given a series of coming of age platitudes and sickening love scenes.

Skins, The Inbetweeners and even Glee show that it is possible to portray pubescent emotion without making everyone lose their lunch. Not so with Trapping(s). A more tasteful expression of love and the human condition was provided by two tramps enjoying a quickie in an alleyway near the theatre. Watching them felt less embarrassing.