BY ADAM M. SCHENCK
Swandive Theater’s production of “Kid-Simple” at the Southern Theater has much to recommend it. Co-directors Meg DiSciorio and Damon Runnals create an intricate set with the best sound design I have seen, or rather heard, in local theater. Sound bumps and soothes the audience.
Lead actor Boo Segersin portrays Moll, an inventive teenager, with energy and expressiveness. Kip Dooley is The Mercenary, a believable villain. Narrator Debra Berger outclasses NPR’s best voices as our guide in “Kid-Simple.” The rest of the cast (Nathan Gebhard, Sarah Broude, Kevin McLaughlin, and Derek Trost) provide comedy in what the directors call a “quirky fairytale.”
In this production the audience witnesses an astounding technical achievement, with dialogue timing and light changes taking a role themselves. Where the play falters is in the elements outside the control of the cast, crew and directors: “Kid-Simple” uses absurdist storytelling that makes it so the actors and the technical crew seem to be pushing the narrative along instead of the opposite. Actors and tech crew should serve story.
In the plot, what are the motivations of the villains who have stolen Moll’s deep-sound-hearing invention? And what is at stake? It seems that the very existence of sound—humanity’s ability to make and hear sound—could disappear. This is sort of like the plot of every superhero movie: the hero must Save the World.
Additionally, why does Moll’s family listen to a nostalgic radio play program when the story is set near the present? Why is there cursing and a theme of sex in a play that seems to be about children? Moll and Oliver are teens, yes, but children nonetheless.
So, go to “Kid-Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh” for the impressive technical organization and efforts of the cast. Get blessed by sound in the fairytale setting. Expect zany comedy, but not what Aristotle called “catharsis”— when we feel the experience of someone else so much that we feel the purgation of our own pent-up feelings—when for a moment we see outside ourselves.
The Southern Theater is located at 1420 S. Washington Ave., Mpls. 55454. The play runs through May 22. Box office is 612-340-0155. Or go to www.southern.com.
