Adolescence: Netflix has created Theatre

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Recently, I’ve seen and heard a lot of praise for the hit Netflix show, Adolescence, the majority of which seeming to be about the actors performing in one take. The show is brilliant and the actors are incredibly resilient and talented. And, whilst it’s not a perfect equivalent, I can’t help finding parallels between this type of screen acting and theatre in general.

Every hour-long episode of Adolescence is performed in one shot, start to finish, with patience and planning making up for the much easier technique of hidden cuts or multiple cameras. The cast and crew must perform and be “switched on” every time they film the episode. If they lose focus for a second, the take is ruined. 


It’s also a lot of lines and blocking to learn - mistakes can’t just be reset or edited out! In fact, in episode 3, a mistake is left in, where Owen Cooper, playing Jamie, yawned in the middle of a conversation. Erin Doherty, playing Briony, then improvised, asking “Am I boring you?”. It added a very interesting dynamic between the two characters, a slight hint towards humanity in Jamie and equally Briony’s tortured care towards him. It may seem small, but is was improvisations and mistakes like this that has convinced me that Adolescence is not just a Netflix series, it’s theatre. 


A series that is crafted in this way, with such trust given to the actors and such ingenious storytelling and direction, truly encapsulates the values and technicalities of theatre. To perform a play is to give the actors control of their own characters and world, to allow them to, night after night, place this story in the audience’s hands themselves. No two performances are the same, much like how no two takes of Adolescence are the same. It is the tireless dedication and effort from the actors that creates drama. That spark is why a format like Adolescence’s works and, ultimately, that spark is the very heart and soul of live performance art. 



                                                        Adolescence' Breakout Owen Cooper on Leading Netflix's One-Shot Drama



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