Review: SEVEN METHODS OF KILLING KYLIE JENNER, Royal Court

It all begins, of course, with a tweet. When the news of Kylie Jenner's status as the "youngest self-made billionaire ever" starts to make the rounds on Twitter, 21-year-old Cleo, despite the warnings of her close friend Kara, launches an online rampage with the hashtag #kyliejennerfidead. As Jasmine Lee-Jones's seven methods of killing Kylie Jenner announces in its title, Cleo has come up with seven ways to get rid of this "con artist-cum-provocateur," which she will lay out for the world to see.

The Royal Court Theatre is no stranger to the Twittersphere into which we are so plunged with this story. Lee-Jones's award-winning play had its sold-out 2019 premiere in this venue, and a revival of Milli Bhatia's acclaimed production was desired by many who had missed out on it before. And it is, indeed, an absolute post-lockdown treat to experience anew Cleo and Kara's march through the jungles of their friendship, racial trauma, and online trolls. (The play won Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Awards for Most Promising Playwright.)

In certain ways, seven methods of killing Kylie Jenner is a two-hander: it revolves around the tensely intimate relationship between two young Black women whose mutual affection is threatened by their submerged narratives of social and psychic exclusion. As the duo, Leanne Henlon and Tia Bannon deliver powerhouse performances. Henlon's Cleo is an erudite, no-nonsense critic of nearly everything wrong with the world, no matter the consequences. Bannon, reprising her performance from 2019, portrays a Kara quietly torn between protecting her feisty friend and calling her out on her errors of judgment.

Yet seven methods is also much more than a well-behaved two-hander: the scenes featuring Cleo and Kara's nocturnal debate are generously, wondrously interspersed with recreations of a Twitter timeline that reacts to Cleo's online rants. Here, too, Henlon and Bannon deftly shoulder the task of bodying forth a wild array of tweets, transforming themselves into a trance-inducing chorus of memes, emojis, and GIFs. In these interludes, pixels on screen prance around as flesh and blood.

Jessica Hung Han Yun and Amy Mae's flickering, frenzied lighting and Elena Peña's deeply ambient sound design help create a digital realm whose grotesque energies correspond to the emotional turmoil of the two characters. What makes this all even more impressive is the absence of any visual reference to the internet in Rajha Shakiry's gently marvellous scenic design: a giant tree of enmeshed webs and drooping strings is all that evokes the networked traps of the online world, at once magical and overbearing.

Bhatia's dynamic, nuanced direction is duly attuned to the DNA of this extraordinary play: laugh-out-loud moments gracefully co-exist with scenes of tender introspection, and the down-to-earth poetry of Lee-Jones's writing stands out in performance without interfering with the pace of the action. The play's earnest critiques of systemic racism, radical inequality, and online culture are effortlessly striated with acerbic wit and self-deprecating humour, all of which this revival orchestrates with energetic poise.

Astutely provocative in both form and content, seven methods of killing Kylie Jenner is a gem that not only heralds - once again - the arrival of a confident, exciting playwright, but testifies to the talent and skill of everyone involved in its staging. This is a night in the theatre that will burrow into a corner of your mind and expand its reach like a viral tweet.

seven methods of killing Kylie Jenner at The Royal Court Theatre until 27 July

Photo credit: Myah Jeffers

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