SLAP. BANG. KISS: the play putting revolutionary teenagers centre stage

Posted on 3 September, 2024

SLAP. A video of a 16-year-old hitting a security officer goes viral. BANG. An impassioned speech for the victims of a school shooting makes international news. KISS. Two boys lock lips in an attempt to set the world record for the longest kiss.

Tracking three young people whose stories kick start a series of unforeseeable events, SLAP. BANG. KISS is asking an important question – can young people change the world?

Multi-award-winning playwright Dan Giovannoni knows they can.

That’s why he wrote SLAP. BANG. KISS, to reject “the idea of a teenager as simply a smelly grump sulking in their bedroom”.

“I’d been thinking about some of the myths we are told about teenagers – that they’re apathetic, apolitical, disinterested. The teenagers I meet are engaged, curious, angry, and keen to be listened to. And actually, they’re everywhere: taking the microphone at climate strikes, suing the federal government over their failure to ensure a safe future for young people, sharing themselves authentically with friends and family,” says Dan.

“While the stories in SLAP. BANG. KISS. are ultimately works of fiction, they reference the real world and take as their starting point the same idea – that young people are shaped by the world around them but are also capable of doing the shaping.”

Coming to The Q – Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre for two performances only on Wednesday 11 September, SLAP. BANG. KISS follows three young people – Immi, Sofia, and Darby – whose decisions lead to a series of events none of them could have anticipated.

Transformed into global symbols of a revolution, the whole world is watching, and SLAP. BANG. KISS explores what they do next.

“There were a few things I knew pretty early on that guided the writing process. I knew the characters – I knew it was about someone who stood up to a figure of authority, someone who survived a school shooting, and someone who wanted to set the world record for the longest kiss,” explains Dan.

“I read about real-life examples of each of those scenarios. I read about social movements started by young people, I read about events that went viral on social media, and how that happened, how small moments captured peoples’ attention.”

Exploring themes of activism, and community, according to Director Katy Maudlin the heart of the play is about young people affecting change – which could only be presented boldly and fluidly, like Dan’s writing.

“The world of this play is fluid…These three stories are woven together, with the characters sparking movements and setting their worlds alight,” she says.

“As the play progresses, it expands, and we meet the people surrounding our three initial protagonists, the people who are joining and rallying around these movements. Finally, the protest is over, there is an abandoned megaphone sitting on the ground, and new characters emerge, asking if they should grab this opportunity and use their voice to affect change.”

Shortlisted for the 2021 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, and starring Sarah Fitzgerald (The Great Australian Play), Tomáš Kantor (Twelfth Night), and Tsungirai Wachenuka (Paw Patrol Live), hope is also a key theme in SLAP. BANG. KISS.

Timely and a rallying cry for the power of teenage voices and their capacity to generate change, for 65 minutes Dan and Katy use the characters – and the hope interwoven throughout their stories – to invite young people to step forward and lead change.

Putting revolutionary teenagers centre stage, Dan says that there’s a lot to be scared about in the world and it’s easy for teenagers to feel like they’re inheriting a mess of broken systems.

But they do have a say in how to fix them – and they do have the power to make big changes. Just like in SLAP. BANG. KISS.

“Hope is something you have to work at, and I’m working at it myself. That’s partly why I write for young people, I reckon – it pushes me to work against worry and fear and live with hope, to offer pathways to new thinking, to create a space where people can imagine themselves anew,” says Dan.

“I suppose I could have written a play about how horrible the world can be, how aggressive regimes squash people, how poor policy and weak governments fail their citizens, how fear can divide us – but I wanted this play to be an invitation to young people stepping into the world, an opportunity to see folks like them leading change, demanding their voices be heard.”

Photography: Sarah Walker.