Theater Reviews—

‘Kimberly Akimbo’ Lives Up To Expectations For A TheatreWorks Production

By Julie Stern

NEW MILFORD — Last year TheatreWorks New Milford opened their season with David Lindsay-Abaire’s Fuddy Meers, a genuinely funny farce centering on a stroke victim’s garbled attempts to communicate, and an amnesiac’s daunting attempt to make sense of her past.

This year they are beginning with another one of Lindsay-Abaire’s works, which again uses medical pathology as subject matter for a comic play: Kimberly Levaco is a 16-year-old New Jersey high school junior who suffers from a rare and horrible condition called Progeria (Latin for “rapid aging”) whose victims age physically at a rate five times faster than normal.

The thrust of the play is that Kimberly’s disease is less bothersome than her foul mouthed and dysfunctional family: her alcoholic father, Buddy; her self-absorbed, hypochondriacal mother, Patty; and her homeless aunt, Debra, who is also a hard core criminal.

Kimberly’s struggles to lead a conventional life are frustrated as much by their antics as by the fact that she looks so different that she is shunned or at least ignored by the other kids in school.

The plot takes shape when she interacts with Jeff, a  nerdy counterboy at the local Zippy Burger. His initial overtures take the form of asking to interview her for a disease report for their biology class, so that he can explain why she looks so old, and how the average life expectancy of someone with Progeria is 16 years.

As she tolerates the insensitivity of his questions, and he reveals the depth of his own family dysfunction, a tentative friendship develops and grows. As with Fuddy Meers, Lindsay-Abaire’s skilled craftsmanship ties everything together and provides an explanation for the bizarre behavior of the adults, while working in some very funny lines and sight gags.

This play is not for everyone. Despite the abundant humor, and the relatively happy ending, I found it almost unbearably sad. Kimberly’s indomitable courage, her loneliness, and her forbearance make her a wonderful heroine, but the cruelty of the sentence under which she exists is inescapable.

As far as the production goes, well, this is TheatreWorks, one of the best local groups around, and that reputation enables them to attract new talent, happy for the chance to work with such a company. Keir Hansen, who has long shone as an actor, proves himself equally good as a director, keeping the tempo moving crisply, and getting fine performances from all his players.

There has been some criticism of Debra Johnson as Kimberly on the grounds that she looks “too young” for the part. At 16, a girl with progeria should look like an 80-year-old grandmother, whereas Ms Johnson looks no more than 40. However, this is certainly enough to make her seem totally out of place in a high school, and her skill lies in her ability to convey the incongruity of seeing the wistful anxieties and dreams of an adolescent coming from a matronly persona who assures her father that he doesn’t have to worry about Jeff’s intentions: “I went through menopause four years ago.”

Joseph Harding is sure footed as her well-meaning but hopelessly irresponsible father, Mikki Harkin is outrageous as her appalling mother,  Lori Larson is extremely funny as the crazy aunt with a penchant for stealing mailboxes, and  Devin Hanley is wonderful in the role of  her friend, Jeff.

In short, this is a well crafted, well acted show which will make you laugh, but you are likely to be very quiet when it is over. If this doesn’t bother you, then it is definitely worth a trip up to New Milford, but there are only two weekends left in which to see it.

(Performances of Kimberly Akimbo will run Friday and Saturday at 8 pm until March 19.

Tickets are $17.50. TheatreWorks New Milford is at 5 Brookside Avenue; call 860-350-6863.)