Kimberly Akimbo

Critiqued by Holly Bartges

“I just happen to be looking through Leviticus.”

Nobody just happens to be looking through Leviticus, especially before breakfast. He had reason, he thought. His hypochondriac wife, his off the wall sister-in-law, his shy 16 year old daughter, and his daughter’s brainy friend played Dungeons and Dragons for three hours the night before only to be killed by some strange mythical monster. Whatever answer could there be but to look through Leviticus. It is important to be casual in situations like this.

Judy Phelan-Hill as Kimberly in Vintage Theatre’s production of Kimberly Akimbo Photo credit: Ellen Nelson

Sober a short time, Buddy promised his daughter, Kimberly, he would stop drinking. Buddy definitely has his hands full.

Kimberly Akimbo, wondrously directed by Bernie Cardell, hit the boards running at the Vintage Theatre with incredible talent provided by five highly sensitive and determined artists.

A sixteen-year-old girl plays Kimberly. Ironically, that sixteen-year-old girl looks a great deal like Judy Phelan-Hill.  It’s true. She does, simply because it is Phelan-Hill. It is up for grabs as to whether this long time favorite Denver actor embodied Kimberly, or Kimberly engulfed herself in the determined spirit of Phelan-Hill.  Either way one wants to cut it, the result is a serendipitous stunning performance.

Kimberly lives with a rare disease identifiable with progeria aging her four and a half times faster than normal. Phelan-Hill’s performance is spell binding. Her expressions, physical movements, everything about her spells sixteen year old. Over the years Phelan-Hill has given some astonishing performances, but this one places her in a category all by itself.

Phelan-Hill is not alone in this humorous, heart stopping sensitive play creating sniggles, giggles, out ward laughter, lip biting, and provocative thought.

Buddy engulfs Gene Kato. Buddy, an alcoholic, has his hands full. Besides Kimberly, his pregnant wife, Patti walks through a muddled “hypochondriatic“ world. She just knows she is dying of cancer along with being diabetic. Her hands are bandaged from carpal tunnel surgery and must be spoon-fed  by someone who will take the time to feed her. Janelle Christie takes her for an awesome roller coaster dare devil ride. One minute she’s hysterical, the next bowing to child like happiness over playing games, the next flipping out with a violent tempered rage.

Michael Hawthorne as Jeff in Vintage Theatre’s Kimberly Akimbo Photo credit: Ellen Nelson

A brilliant classmate of Kimberly’s, a social outcast with a penchant for creating anagrams on the spot, a master at Dungeons and Dragons, becomes involved when he wants to write a paper for school on her condition. In the process he discovers a kindred spirit. He’s so adorable you want to wrap him up and sell him for cotton candy. Jeff McCracken delivers understanding for Michael: bright, enthusiastic, vulnerable, and captivated. His eyes dance one minute, diming the next giving an outstanding performance.

Buddy does his darndest to keep the two apart. After all, he knows what teenage boys want. Staunchly insisting he is sure that’s all what Jeff is after. One of the funniest lines in the play creeps into the laugh line when he punches through the thought with Kimberly. She quietly replies, “What can happen? I went through menopause four years ago.”

Blasting into the midst of this already dysfunctional family slams Deborah, Patti’s sister. She’s been looking all over for the Lavaco family since they mysteriously moved from Secaucus, New Jersey where she lived with them. Offbeat, a free spirit, unfettered by morals or scruples, Libby Rife throws herself into this hysterical, rambunctious, lost-in-the-woods-babe. Buddy didn’t want her to find them. He doesn’t want to be reminded of the unexpected torment causing them to leave Secaucus on the fly. Family secrets have a way of leaking out into the open. For once in her life, Deborah just wants things to go right, hatching a sneaky plan with the help of Kimberly and Michael. These two will be easy to exploit.

As truth unfolds sandwiched between brilliantly written lines of sheer honest comedy, the oft-times far away looks streaming from Kimberly eventually reveals she may be aging faster than normal, but she revels in wisdom. Truth smacks her in the face with a horrified punch, but this young lady isn’t down for the count. She has a trick or two up her own sleeve and she’s not afraid to execute some wild off-the-wall scheme of her own.

South Coast Rep commissioned David Lindsay-Abaire to write Kimberly Akimbo and it premiered there in 2001, winning the LA Drama Critics Circle Award for playwriting, three Garland Awards, and the 2001 Kesselring Prize.

Christopher Wink’s scenic design displays letters on a backdrop board that also unveils panel switching giving depth to the interior of the many scenes. The letters arbitrarily placed spill out onto the stage floor. Of course, the letters spell Kimberly Akimbo playing into Michael’s penchant for anagrams. Akimbo is the result of one of his anagram games. It’s meaning? Let Michael tell you as it stunningly applies to Kimberly. It’s a simple elegant set that must work perfectly for its effectiveness.

Bonnie MacLachlan’s costume design fits the characters perfectly, as well as the actors. The attire speaks grandly to the individuals in all of their idiosyncrasies.

Judy Phelan-Hill as Kimberly Michael Hawthorne as Jeff in Vintage Theatre’s production of Kimberly Akimbo Photo credit: Ellen Nelson

Jen Orf’s lighting design laughs, “glums”, vibrates with the fast moving production as it skips from seriously funny to funnily serious. Even the serious moments carry with them a chuckle. OK, not all. The opening scene where Kimberly waits for her father for over two and half hours in the cold speaks loudly toward the mysterious intrigue surrounding the play.  Without expressing the “whyness” of his lateness, it is clear where he was. The one short scene through Kimberly’s forlorn eyes shows wisdom beyond her sixteen years. If you look hard enough, the forlornness gives way to the playfulness that will be her salvation.

Herein lies a play filled to the rafters with laughter coupled with heartrending itches by significant actors who have built remarkable characters and live them in a “chemistried” aura of complexity.

Kimberly Akimbo will knock your socks off, wash them, tumble dry them, and lay them at your feet when the house lights come up before you have time to regain your breath.

Not to be missed under any circumstances. When you go, go early. The parking lot a half a block away is no longer a parking lot. Street parking  only is now the word of the day for the Vintage which means careful planning and maneuvering. That’s only a minor inconvenience for the enchanting magical experience waiting on the Vintage stage.

Kimberly Akimbo
By David Lindsay-Abaire; directed by Bernie Cardell