TEEN SPIRIT centres on Noah, a 16-year-old boy who dies and is transported to a “limbo” separate from the real world, where others who have died are sent. As a massive grunge fan, he meets Kurt Cobain and befriends a musician named Elijah. When he starts appearing in his brother Alex’s room as a ghost, and is able to talk to him, he begins to think about his lost youth and disconnection from the world.
The grunge music played throughout will, at the very least, inspire you to listen to Nirvana again, but it also perfectly captures the anger Noah feels towards a world that’s moving on from him. He is stuck in limbo with Kurt Cobain, while his brother moves on with his life, and listens to music that isn’t so characteristically 90s. The set is symbolically split by a curtain which separates the real world and limbo, and Noah watches on as his brother’s room progresses through time, from phase to phase. One pile of records becomes another, and different books appear on his bedside table as time goes on (the attention to detail here was impressive – even Alex’s clothes change aesthetics throughout). All this develops while Alex wears the same ‘Nevermind’ t-shirt. In the end, the creative decision to use grunge music allows us to understand Noah, and forms a big part of the soul of the play.
The play hits its most profound notes when it considers what Noah’s life could have been. Having lost his youth, Noah has to cope with the fact that his future can never be realised. The set design gives a lot of detail to the real world but leaves the limbo relatively barren with just two chairs, reflecting Noah’s powerlessness. His attachment to things of the past, like grunge music, is his way of avoiding this fact. In a tense but heartfelt conversation, Noah and Alex wonder about what could have been if Noah were still alive. The play thoughtfully explores his lost youth, highlighting the small, missed moments of life, like having a drink. The actors do a good job of striking this bittersweet chord, conveying both joy at being able to see each other and an awareness of their separate realities.
Though not the main focus, the comedy adds much to the play’s personality. The opening scenes involve Noah and Elijah playing a prank on David Bowie, where they walk up to him and talk in an exaggerated caricature of his voice. Later on, Alex and Noah remember a moment from their childhood during which they sang Nirvana’s “On a plain” while on a plane. These moments help to familiarise ourselves with the characters and understand the absurdity of their situation.
While Noah’s struggle with a progressing world takes up much of the focus of the play, towards the end, he realises he is still connected to his world and present in the life of his brother. This too is captured through the use of music. In the final scene, before Noah “moves on” from limbo to die a second time (he learns from Elijah that whenever someone becomes a ghost like he did, they move on from limbo to an unknown place soon after), he performs a song with Alex from their childhood. It is a sudden, uplifting moment, which speaks to the importance of brotherhood and recognising how those close to us remain important in our lives, even beyond death. The chemistry between the actors for Noah and Alex, Esther O’Neill and Sam Small respectively, does a lot to make this point; it is in seeing how important he still is in his brother’s life that Noah is able to move on. If the play is to be understood as a metaphor for watching someone close to us change as a person, and perhaps outgrow us, its message is clear: embrace change but also remember the relationship once had.
[TEEN SPIRIT, staged by Blackstar Productions, is running at the Burton Taylor Studio, 4th-8th Nov, 2025]