Teenage Dick

Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick is a funny and shocking high adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III. 16-year-old Richard feels like an outsider at Roseland High because of his cerebral palsy and his general inability to socialize. He wants to hold power over the school so he schemes and enacts a plan to become senior class president, but he falls into a cycle of megalomania as he destroys the people around him.

Dean Nash portrays the shady, manipulative, and almost sympathetic Richard. He portrays the complexities of Richard as a character as he transitions from a tortured, slightly evil, outsider to a malevolent, power-hungry tormentor. Throughout the show, Nash is expertly able to find beats in which to make Richard sympathetic or sinister, manipulating the audience’s emotions almost as well as his character controls the other students. Holly-Jane Cohle adds some levity as the optimistic, lovesick Buck. Cohle delivers both dry jokes and words of wisdom with ease, their presence on stage always a highlight of the scene. Rocco Forrester plays the crude yet infuriatingly charming bully Eddie. The energy he brought to the role was electric, yet he was able to balance charisma with devastatingly brutal acts of bullying. His platonic chemistry with his cast member Thom Blake made for the most hilarious moments of the show. Chloe Ho put on a strong, emotional performance as the tragic character Anne Maragret, her final monologue wonderfully disturbing and poignant. Elizabeth York, the only adult character in the play, is portrayed by Amy Victoria Brooks. She plays a seemingly stereotypical supportive teacher, but her reactions and moments of frustration with students and anger with faculty elevate the character immensely. Gemma Dart played the hyper-religious, unaccomplished perfectionist Clarissa, managing to act as both annoying and somewhat sympathetic near the end.

The cast, in addition to having believable chemistry with each other, had absolutely fantastic interactions with the audience, such as characters directly looking a viewer in the eye, giving out flyers, and even Forrester sitting next to the seats and (respectfully) flirting with a woman. The actors used the space and those inside it to their advantage. Scene changes were creative as there were very few blackouts—at one point, Blake moved a table by impressively spinning it above the ground.

In addition to playing Richard, Nash was the sound designer. The sound of live tweets reading out cruel comments booming across the stage heightened the sense of situational gravity and accurately represented mental torment.

Teenage Dick explores the experience of being disabled, greedy, and manipulative with characters that make the story come to life. The show does contain sensitive topics that may not be suitable for all viewers, but the venue does a good job of providing accurate and specific warnings pre-show, and having accommodations for those who may need to leave mid-performance.

Livia Greenberg

Photographer: Andrea Magpulong