48 Shades of Brown

48 Shades of Brown

Life for a 16 old teenage boy was all about to be different. Dan, a typical teenager has all the interests a normal male would. While Dan’s parents are in Geneva, he stays with his aunt Jacq, a fashionable, and techno flavored, short haired, 23 year old uni student, in Brisbane. While staying there, he encounters a test of adult responsibilities, first love and battling through adolescence. Teenagers have been pressured into doing things they don’t want to do, Dan gives us an example of teenagers giving into peer pressure, forced to say that he was a student studying law at University. Teens who are being pressured by their peers think that they will become more popular if they do the [pic] ‘cool’ thing even if it can cause themselves harm. Teenagers these days are dealing with peer pressure every day, from mates telling them to lie to their friends and family, drinking when they are underage and/or don’t want too. Dan discovers that his life isn’t that easy, winning people’s hearts, remembering 48 shades of brown, drinking under age and peer pressure. This play shows how teenagers relate to real life, what they go through every day, what challenges they have to pass through, even what things they need to remember, such as passing school, remembering things for exams, juggling schoolwork and a social life. Dan’s first love starts right at the start of the book with one of Jacq’s uni friends who is currently a second-year Psychology student, Naomi, a pretty blonde 18 year old. Dan quickly realizes that Naomi has a thing for people who can name things, such as naming trees. When Dan realizes this, he tries to learn every shade of brown to impress the girl and win her heart. Teens will do anything to impress their ‘first loves’ from remembering things for them, to impressing them with flowers, teens these days think that the other gender has a big impact in their lives, but sometimes this can cause them to forget the real things in life, like study and family. People forget what things are important in life as well, like school work, getting good grades to maintain a good OP, to set you up in life, but don’t forget family, family is something you need to be by your side, teenagers continue to forget what family they have, parent and siblings are wondering why teenagers are changing. While at Jacq’s uni party, Dan gets himself into a sticky situation, he is pressured into lying to a girl called Imogen who is intoxicated, who continues to flirt with Dan while he is interested in Naomi. Dan goes with the flow and allows her to make out with him in his room, until Imogen becomes not to well and throws up all over him. This is happening more regularly, people drink too much, dance a little, make out a little, and become sick. Teens are continuing drink more and more every weekend, we are continuing to hear about parties that are going wrong, people who are drunk and becoming violent or just being taken to hospital for drinking too much and having their stomach pumped.

In this play, Philip Dean, has shown the relevance to what a normal teenager’s life would be, with a couple of bumps on the way. From love, to adolescences, he has shown the real way a male teenagers mind would work, what challenges in life, what things they need to remember; just like ‘48 Shades of Brown’.

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The Courier Mail
|Life as you know it |13/05/11 |Edition 1, Volume 1 |

48 Shades of Brown

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Phillip Dean adapts the play ‘48 shades of brown’, which is a gently comic tale of intimacy, ornithology and fresh pesto.