It’s not often that I get to review a comedy show and say that, along with some very hearty laughs, this is also a bit of a tear jerker.
The Debutante Diaries is a one woman play, written and performed by Kate McLennan documenting the journey up to and including the high school Debutante ball. Kate has created a whole cast of characters and her accomplishment as a character actor is apparent from the get go.
The ‘cast’ includes Sophie, full of sweet naive innocence; Crystal (pronounced “cris-tell”) and Stacey, variations on the regulation school bitch; publicity obsessed Adam; the sleazy Mr Garrety; Matty, the reluctant boyfriend and Miss Kennedy, the single, often bitter and delightfully caustic female teacher. In many ways these characters are stereotypes, but in the tradition of comedy which is about taking the truth and making it larger, these characters work well, successfully illustrating the narrative and providing some hilarious moments of stereotype parody.
This is a very well written piece, with a real truthfulness to the humour that not only evokes laughs but informs the characters. There were a few slightly flat patches during the course of the show but they barely matter within the context of a show that does really deliver on the laughs and in content. Character changes are indicated by very simple costume changes, but are emphasised by Kate’s ability to swap and change cleanly and clearly from one to the other.
There were a couple of moments towards the end of this show which made me tear up. To blame that on me being a sentimental old fool would be doing a disservice to Kate. To evoke that kind of reaction demonstrates how much Kate has made her audience truly empathise with her characters and connect with Kate herself.
This is a great show which goes from gut wrenchingly funny to sweetly sad. Kate is a young comic who shows herself to be an accomplished writer and performer, and displays the potential to become something really special as she continues to develop as an artist.