MTC opens its 2024 season with Matthew Whittet’s play about the exciting, scary potential of youth and how our lives seem to pass by in a flash.

Anne-Louise Sarks, who is now MTC’s Artistic Director, helmed the premiere of Seventeen at Belvoir in 2015 before taking it to London. Matt Edgerton picks up the reins for a new production of this play, which sees a group of teens gather in a playground to celebrate their last ever day of school.

Melbourne Theatre Company’s Seventeen. Photo © Pia Johnson

There’s confident Jess and her brash boyfriend Mike. His polar-opposite best mate Tom and Jess’s brainy bestie Emilia. Outcast Ronny, who they reluctantly allow to join them. There’s also Mike’s perky 14-year-old sister, Lizzy, who hangs around the fringe of their boozing, kissing, dancing and game of truth or dare.

On the cusp of adulthood, their hedonistic behaviour, painful confessions and anxiety about the future have greater impact because of Whittet’s masterstroke: these characters are played by actors who could be their grandparents.

They don’t interpret their own youth, but rather an approximate present with its mobile phones and TikTok dance moves. Simultaneously young and...