Student debt, hand hygiene, the resurgence of ISIS and the housing market - the list of things a 20-something stresses about can be endless.
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Sometimes these things can appear to be pointless or even silly to worry about. And yet, there is a generation that is all but defined by its existential stresses.
It's something that Canberra Youth Theatre is exploring in its upcoming performance at Canberra Theatre.
Two Twenty Somethings Decide Never To Be Stressed About Anything Ever Again. Ever follows a young couple - known as The Boyfriend and The Girlfriend - who, as the title suggests, decide to stop all their worrying.
What follows is a desperate attempt to live the ideal Millennial lifestyle, filled with cool friends, indoor plants, and home-brewed Kombucha - without any of the anxieties that many their age experience. But getting it all right is harder than it seems. Nay, it's impossible. Life doesn't work like that.
But despite the play's title and the fact that it's produced by a youth theatre company, this is a work that director Luke Rogers says is relatable to everyone, no matter their age.
"It's very much linked into a lot of the existential stresses that not just 20-somethings - but let's be real, mainly 20-somethings - have. I'm no longer 20-something, but I still find it incredibly relatable," he says.
"It's about that time where you realise that you're no longer a teenager, but you're not quite an adult but you still have to be accountable, but also you're making it up as you go along. It is a very familiar time. And to be honest, it doesn't go away.
"One could say it's probably quite timeless in its relevance, and relatability of just trying to learn how to adult and the confusion that comes with that. The comic premise is that they just buckle under the pressure of everything that's going on in the world, and then they just decide, we're just not going to engage anymore."
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Rogers says the point of the play is not to laugh at 20-somethings. The comedy in the script doesn't even come from the characters, but rather the absurdity of the situations they find themselves in.
It's probably for this reason that when actor Martha Russell - who plays The Girlfriend - shows the script to her 20-something friends, the first word they say is "relatable".
"It's very validating to read it, and to play it and to have it going on," she says.
"It's not saying you're at the prime of your life and it's also not saying, if you're young, you're silly for worrying about stuff, which I think a lot of people have that perspective. But it's just validating. It's like, yes, it's stressful. How absurd is that?"
Russell's character in particular finds herself overwhelmingly consumed about how she is perceived. Her biggest fear is that she will get "cancelled" for something that she says or does - which in itself, is a very Millennial and Gen Z concept.
But it's also one that extends from how we present ourselves online - something that the majority of people have to navigate.
"It's that idea that now more than ever ... all of our private lives are made public," Rogers says.
"Our online persona is an edited version of self. And we get so caught up in how that is read, how that is perceived and how people treat us. I think it's something that can be naively misconstrued as being shallow or narcissistic but it's not.
"If you're applying for a job, I can check your Instagram, and it can dictate how we view each other and how we engage with each other. It is opening us up to a lot more scrutiny and exposing a lot more vulnerability. The notions of identity and questions of self, we're forced to reflect on those much more, perhaps, than we normally would."
- Two Twenty Somethings Decide Never To Be Stressed About Anything Ever Again. Ever is at the Canberra Theatre Centre from December 9 to 14. For tickets go to canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
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