Review: THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY at Blackfriars Theatre

For its first full production of 2023 (they hosted a limited one weekend run of "Tick...Tick...BOOM" in January) Rochester's Blackfriars Theatre presents "The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey", a one-person show written by Celeste Lecesne, an LGBTQ rights activist whose name you might recognize as one of the co-founders of The Trevor Project, which focuses on suicide prevention efforts for LGBTQ+ youth. "Absolute Brightness" traverses similar terrain, albeit intertwining comedy and tremendous heart into subject matter that is, unfortunately, incredibly timely, as anti-trans sentiment and legislation appears to once again be on the rise.

"Absolute Brightness" features one actor (Marc D'Amico) who portrays a hardboiled detective-type, along with numerous other characters in a small Jersey Shore town as he unravels the story of Leonard Pelkey, a tenaciously optimistic and flamboyant fourteen-year-old boy who goes missing. A luminous force of nature whose magic is only truly felt once he is gone, Leonard becomes an unexpected inspiration as the town's citizens question how they live, who they love, and what they leave behind.

One-person shows are the Mount Everest of the theatre world. Not only does the storytelling burden fall squarely on the shoulders of one performer, imbuing that individual with the weight of every audience member's theatergoing experience, but that person also needs to have the dramatic ability to pivot between multiple characters (in the case of "Absolute Brightness", nine); the physical stamina to bounce between different accents, mannerisms, costumes, and styles of body language; and the mental clarity to not lose the narrative thread of the play. Anyone who sees this production will agree that D'Amico is well up to the task. At various times D'Amico becomes a Mob Wives-reminiscent hairdresser, a withdrawn teenage girl, an elderly German clock seller, and a flamboyant afterschool drama teacher, among various other characters. The constant bouncing between characters doesn't appear to tax D'Amico at all, who is equally adept at delivering emotional gut punches and side-splitting laughter; "Absolute Brightness" contains much of both.

The sparse and stripped-down production design of "Absolute Brightness" also makes it the perfect blackbox show, and the perfect show for the space at Blackfriars.

"Absolute Brightness" is equal parts hilarious, heart-wrenching, and poignant, reminding us all to embrace and celebrate our differences, and that acceptance is unfortunately still something to be fought for. It's playing at Blackfriars Theatre until February 12th, for tickets and more information click here.