What I liked
This show works entirely based on the strength of the actors’ full commitment to portraying teenagers in all their loud, explosive, occasionally narcissistic, fumblingly empathetic glory — getting lost in the weeds talking over each other, ignoring each other, saying exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time
Special shout-out to Larissa Dowling’s portrayal of Milo, the protagonist’s annoying younger brother and the secret star of the show. Of all the adult AFAB artists I’ve seen make the attempt, Dowling is one of the most creepily convincing at portraying a 12-year-old boy I’ve seen, and in a show that’s unapologetically primarily from a female POV it was Dowling’s portrayal of Milo’s struggle with his own gender identity that hooked me starting from when I saw an excerpt of this show at the Cabaret and got me to see it twice, and in a play that had multiple tear-jerker moments it was Milo’s silent gaze into the mirror towards the end of the show that pushed me over the edge into actually crying in my seat.
What I didn't like
The limitations of a Fringe show came out sometimes in this staging. Tommi Jo Mongold carries a huge weight on their shoulders as the lead of this show, and even though Andy is a tremendously recognizable and fully realized character from the moment we see her, I felt like sometimes the beats the playwright intended in certain long monologues got swallowed up by the general frenetic anxiety of the performance.
Likewise from a set design POV the motif of blood is in the title of the play and explicitly stated over and over again, and the abstraction of representing blood as red tissue paper felt like it didn’t give quite enough weight to this (in one pivotal moment it took me long enough to figure out that Andy revealing a strip of paper in her hand was meant to be revealing that she’d bitten and cut herself in her anxiety that it took away from the impact of the moment).
I’m obviously not saying that I think dousing the stage with realistic blood is a great idea, but in the back of my mind I keep thinking that the climactic final moment of the play with the exultant cry of “Blood!” could be more visually impactful than it is somehow.
None of this is stuff that couldn’t be fixed with more money and more time — these critiques are not at all meant to bring down the show but to say that I strongly wish to see this show come back with a bigger budget, bigger venue and longer run.
My overall impression
A show as chaotic and messy and uncomfortable as puberty usually is
Definitely worth watching for anyone who’s forgotten how overwhelming the age of 14 is, or who’s tried to forget but can’t
