Sarah Kendall: A Day in October

Sarah Kendall knows well how to manipulate an audience, a fact made abundantly clear in her ongoing transition from standup to storyteller. With its themes of teen isolation and urban decay, A Day in October has all the ingredients of a moving confessional. What makes the show truly remarkable, however, is how breezy, off-the-cuff asides transpire to be heavily scripted clues with varying levels of impact on the show's main narrative.

While Newcastle, Australia has prospered since, in 1990 it was a difficult place to live, with few opportunities for residents and high levels of juvenile delinquency. Kendall spent most of her teens an unpopular loner, but managed to avoid the scorn of bullies by keeping a consistently low profile. Despite her inclination toward self-preservation, she struck up an unlikely friendship with harassed victim George Peach, and this is his story.

Serious adolescent trauma is a tricky subject to build a comedy show around. At certain points, present day Kendall is almost complicit in the bullying to which George was subjected, but the performer is acutely attuned to our shifting sympathies. Each time she loses us, we're soon won back by her humanity and tangible sense of shame.

Yes, this is a tightly written hour in which we're deceived and asked to suspend our disbelief at several points, but its emotional credentials are fully earned. For all her warmth and charisma, Kendall is growing into a challenging proposition whose mastery of her craft is allowing for some beautifully complex and subversive work.