My overall impression
When you see the physical demands of Kimleigh Smith’s role in this one woman show, you begin to wonder if you’re watching a play or the Mental Circus at King King. She moves like a sixteen year old gymnast, and according her play, she’s weighed as much as one hundred and ninety five pounds. This girl can move, and the energy of the performance never falters.
For the majority of the play, Kimleigh relives a devastating night in her life and the post traumatic repression that blocks all memory of said night. Playing her seventeen year old cheerleader self, Kimleigh uses a lot of cheer gestures and positions to emphasize bits of the story. I feel this was at times a bit excessive and even a little indicative. She’s obviously very charming in real life, and I felt she didn’t need to push. However, when she ages in the play, the gestures subside, and you begin to see the real her. That’s when she saw the biggest laughs of the night.
I felt the performance out-shined the script a little bit, though it certainly was poignant and personal. At the point where she confronts her demons, a dramatic transformation into a new woman complete with costume change, the play begins to lose it’s conflict. Rather, there is a conflict of learning to be this new woman, but it’s not nearly as high stakes as coming to terms with the psychological damage she experienced. It was definitely still funny, as well as sweet, but it seemed like an extended epilogue as opposed to a climax and resolution.
“T-O-T-A-L-L-Y” is an important show dealing with a theme more common in every day life than people realize. This is theatre from the heart of someone who has known real pain, and she puts everything into this performance. She warrants an audience, and I would definitely recommend this show, as well as the cookies in the lobby.
