Be More Chill

Art in Motion Theatre Company is presenting Be More Chill, a musical with somewhat of a cult following. Well presented and enthusiastically performed, opening night played to a very receptive audience at Don Russell Performing Arts Centre (DRPAC).

This production marked a directorial debut for Jarvys McQueen-Mason, showing a young director with clear vision and enthusiasm. The production featured a good-sized, high-quality band and some impressive vocals under the musical direction of Kieran Ridgway and Brittany Isaia. There was more dancing in this production than I expected, and this was high energy and nicely executed. Kudos to Choreographer Ebony Uetake (who gave birth less than a fortnight before opening night – Congratulations) and her assistant Sophie David.

The muti-level set, designed by AJ Giltrow and Ellien Warden, features a large video or computer screen frame, framing much of the action, and both the writing and the direction feels computer driven with quick action, lots of things happening and moving from one idea to another rapidly. The large cast size and the shallow nature of the DRPAC stage means that occasionally the stage feels a little crowded and chaotic, but this doesn’t seem to slow down the production.

Central character Jeremy Heere is played with expertise and great likeability by Elliot Peacock – a performance that anchors the show well. His best friend Michael has been gender flipped and is very well played by Sophie Boyland – but unfortunately many of the lines are obviously gendered, and the switch doesn’t work well despite Sophie’s outstanding work and great presence.

Love interest Christine is beautifully created by Teah Stewart, a girl who beats to her own drum, while The SQUIP – the personification of a supercomputer implanted in Jeremy’s brain is played with presence by Marshall Brown.

Cool Girls Chloe and Brooke are given great vibe and voice by Asha Perry and Clara Lee, while preppy ladies’ man Jake is played with conviction and swagger by Charlie Darlington. Kailem Mollard charts a great journey as Rich Goranski and Adam ‘AJ’ Giltrow makes a valiant attempt at playing Jeremy’s dad, capturing some of his complexity despite being obviously too young for the role.

In smaller roles, Lukas Perez has fun as gossipy Jenna Rolan, Alyssa Burton is nicely unhinged as drama teacher Ms Reyes and Candice Preston embraces her cameo as the scary stock person.

Interesting to watch this show with an audience that clearly already knows it, as some of the laughs and moments were almost pre-empted by this crowd, leaving others wondering what they were missing. There is obviously a market for Be More Chill and this was a clever commercial decision for Art in Motion.

Kimberley Shaw

Photographer: Brittany Isaia