Kiss Me And You Will See How Important I Am

Captioning the source of its title on the poster indicates to some extent the raw candour of Kiss Me And You Will See How Important I Am. The Sylvia Plath-quoting play gives stark treatment to autism, antidepressants and homosexuality through four teenagers’ monologues. Yet Kiss Me’s dramatising, through dance, of the frustrations of fully expressing these issues is what really reveals its importance.

The suicide of someone so articulate as Plath makes words seem bereft. As four adolescents convene for an evening to talk through their troubles they frequently flounder. At their most sweetly naive, the speeches of Sunday’s Child’s new production recall classics likeThe Virgin Suicides. Less subtle instances, like the dramatic whispering of “Everything is fine!” evokes Skins. 

Its performances are strong and the challenging role of a gay autistic teenager is dealt with well. But Kiss Me's brisk scenes brush against each other with adolescent clumsiness. Fresh with references to Facebook and Lana Del Rey, it's clearly written and directed by the cast. 

The evasiveness of their youth makes for dialogue that similarly eludes satisfaction. As such, each character teeters on the edge of some reckless action, be it violence, vaginoplasty or heating a dog turd in their French exchange host family’s microwave. 

More compelling than these threats is when the characters start to dance in energising and uplifting interludes. But these are ultimately too few and too short. The nucleus of a brilliant idea—a poet’s suicide inspiring teenagers to dance—is not fully hatched.