Julia Bon-McDonald
This review contains spoilers for The Kids Might Die – A Tale Told by An Idiot.
I hate superstitions. I don’t step on cracks. I don’t go under ladders. I once went through a phase of needing to identify wood in any given room, just in case I had to ‘knock on wood’. So, when Jill (played by Jill Young) dares to utter the word ‘Macbeth’ under the roof of Tapere Iti, a chill runs down my spine - I hate that it does
I hate superstitions. I don’t step on cracks. I don’t go under ladders. I once went through a phase of needing to identify wood in any given room, just in case I had to ‘knock on wood’. So, when Jill (played by Jill Young) dares to utter the word ‘Macbeth’ under the roof of Tapere Iti, a chill runs down my spine - I hate that it does
This is the essence of The Kids Might Die – A Tale Told by An Idiot. The Kids Might Die is clever and understated in its portrayal of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but if you know… boy, do you know.
The show opens on the fictional ‘Little Stars Youth Theatre Company’ production of MacBeth, where the increasingly frazzled supervisor (Jill Young) is corralling an untold number of children to begin their performance. Suspiciously soon after Jill dares to say ‘Macbeth’ in a theatre, proceedings are interrupted by an announcement that two previously undiscovered asteroids are heading for earth; the world will end in 45 minutes, starting right now. Before I realised what the show was really about, I almost felt like Jill’s reaction to the end of the world wasn’t big enough. But as the premise of the show became clearer and they delved deeper into OCD-ramblings, it made sense that their behaviour felt next-to-normal - after all, this is normal behaviour to them.
The stage is sparsely populated with a glitter-glue-spangled banner of a castle, and one dead tree (Kyle Aragon). There are yellow paper stars tacked to the curtains, each bearing the name of a company member - while you wait for the show to start I would encourage you to match each star up with the corresponding bio in the programme, they’re very endearing. I also have to mention that The Kids Might Die had some of my favourite follow-spot operation of all time. It adds a shaky-cam feel to some scenes, and deer-in-the-headlights to others. All round, it’s extremely effective.
Occasionally, I wondered where we were going. The Kids Might Die packs a lot of subject matter into its runtime, but the themes of the show along with direction from Calliope Weisman tie it all together to create a wonderfully complex main character. Young's compelling portrayal of an exasperated youth educator drew equal amounts of sympathy and ire. They are a tireless performer and cover the full breadth of human emotion during the show. Jumping from hopeful, to heartbroken, to please-laugh-or-I’ll-die desperation in record time.
I did wonder for a brief moment if this was the kind of show where Jill would play a million different characters, but for the majority of the run time it's just Jill. Except for when it's 8-Year-Old Devon (still played by Jill Young). Devon was a welcome interlude. The contrast between Devon's childlike innocence and Jill's adult anxiety made me realise how wrapped up I'd been in Jill's catastrophic thinking - which is exactly how catastrophic thinking feels. My only critique here is that I wish there hadn't been a total, fourth-wall break while Jill had been playing Devon. Approaching the audience worked, but having Devon mention the world outside of the play broke through the wholesomeness, and distracted from an otherwise very accurate portrayal of an 8-year-old boy.
The audience are very much a part of the show during The Kids Might Die. Jill directs everything straight at us, at times encouraging us to call out answers to questions, along with an extended piece of audience-participation which had me absolutely cackling. I got a lot of enjoyment out of the setting as well, The Kids Might Die will undoubtedly drag you right back to the days of school-holiday theatre programmes and primary-school showcases. If you're a theatre kid, you'll definitely want to sit in the front row. But if you're a theatre kid who doesn't want to participate… well, actually those don't exist so I'll just stop there.
The Kids Might Die is funny, charming, and offers a realistic, poignant account of what it’s like to live with a brain that controls you, instead of you controlling it. All at once, it highlighted the sheer terror and the sheer stupidity of intrusive thoughts, and though it ended without a clear resolution, it felt cathartic.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Kids Might Die - A Tale Told by an Idiot is on in Tapere Iti (Te Auaha) until 8 March - I would encourage you to catch it before Jill and Calliope head to Nelson Fringe next week!
It's important to note that even though this team is from Los Angeles - the arts world is really small! My partner met Jill and Calliope at the San Diego Fringe Festival last year, and I didn’t clock that until I had already agreed to review this show. We have since caught up a few times while they’ve been in Wellington, and if you feel this has affected my ability to remain impartial in this review, Art Murmurs has a feedback form that I would encourage you to use 🙂
The show opens on the fictional ‘Little Stars Youth Theatre Company’ production of MacBeth, where the increasingly frazzled supervisor (Jill Young) is corralling an untold number of children to begin their performance. Suspiciously soon after Jill dares to say ‘Macbeth’ in a theatre, proceedings are interrupted by an announcement that two previously undiscovered asteroids are heading for earth; the world will end in 45 minutes, starting right now. Before I realised what the show was really about, I almost felt like Jill’s reaction to the end of the world wasn’t big enough. But as the premise of the show became clearer and they delved deeper into OCD-ramblings, it made sense that their behaviour felt next-to-normal - after all, this is normal behaviour to them.
The stage is sparsely populated with a glitter-glue-spangled banner of a castle, and one dead tree (Kyle Aragon). There are yellow paper stars tacked to the curtains, each bearing the name of a company member - while you wait for the show to start I would encourage you to match each star up with the corresponding bio in the programme, they’re very endearing. I also have to mention that The Kids Might Die had some of my favourite follow-spot operation of all time. It adds a shaky-cam feel to some scenes, and deer-in-the-headlights to others. All round, it’s extremely effective.
Occasionally, I wondered where we were going. The Kids Might Die packs a lot of subject matter into its runtime, but the themes of the show along with direction from Calliope Weisman tie it all together to create a wonderfully complex main character. Young's compelling portrayal of an exasperated youth educator drew equal amounts of sympathy and ire. They are a tireless performer and cover the full breadth of human emotion during the show. Jumping from hopeful, to heartbroken, to please-laugh-or-I’ll-die desperation in record time.
I did wonder for a brief moment if this was the kind of show where Jill would play a million different characters, but for the majority of the run time it's just Jill. Except for when it's 8-Year-Old Devon (still played by Jill Young). Devon was a welcome interlude. The contrast between Devon's childlike innocence and Jill's adult anxiety made me realise how wrapped up I'd been in Jill's catastrophic thinking - which is exactly how catastrophic thinking feels. My only critique here is that I wish there hadn't been a total, fourth-wall break while Jill had been playing Devon. Approaching the audience worked, but having Devon mention the world outside of the play broke through the wholesomeness, and distracted from an otherwise very accurate portrayal of an 8-year-old boy.
The audience are very much a part of the show during The Kids Might Die. Jill directs everything straight at us, at times encouraging us to call out answers to questions, along with an extended piece of audience-participation which had me absolutely cackling. I got a lot of enjoyment out of the setting as well, The Kids Might Die will undoubtedly drag you right back to the days of school-holiday theatre programmes and primary-school showcases. If you're a theatre kid, you'll definitely want to sit in the front row. But if you're a theatre kid who doesn't want to participate… well, actually those don't exist so I'll just stop there.
The Kids Might Die is funny, charming, and offers a realistic, poignant account of what it’s like to live with a brain that controls you, instead of you controlling it. All at once, it highlighted the sheer terror and the sheer stupidity of intrusive thoughts, and though it ended without a clear resolution, it felt cathartic.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Kids Might Die - A Tale Told by an Idiot is on in Tapere Iti (Te Auaha) until 8 March - I would encourage you to catch it before Jill and Calliope head to Nelson Fringe next week!
It's important to note that even though this team is from Los Angeles - the arts world is really small! My partner met Jill and Calliope at the San Diego Fringe Festival last year, and I didn’t clock that until I had already agreed to review this show. We have since caught up a few times while they’ve been in Wellington, and if you feel this has affected my ability to remain impartial in this review, Art Murmurs has a feedback form that I would encourage you to use 🙂