★★★★✰
Available to stream until 17 April following two successful runs at The Royal Court Theatre in 2019 and 2021, seven methods of killing kylie jenner is an insightful and thought-provoking play that both shocks and educates its audience. Told through conversations between Cleo (Leanne Henlon) and Kara (Tia Bannon), the ninety-minute long performance combines poetry, physical movement and dialogue to explore a variety of themes, from cultural appropriation to friendship.
Kara and Cleo’s conversations segue flawlessly between an impressive number of topics, such as queerness, ownership of Black bodies, and relationships. At first, they joke and tease each other but as Cleo’s online activism takes off, their conversations become increasingly heated, and they start to disagree. Cleo is angry that Kara did not defend her when she was sexually harassed and ridiculed at a party, while Kara recalls how small Cleo made her feel when she told her she liked girls.
Their conversations are interspersed with Cleo’s tweets from her anonymous Twitter account in which she details seven ways she would kill Kylie Jenner. She views Kylie as the ultimate symbol of cultural appropriation, comparing the comments she gets about her lip fillers to the vile remarks that Black women receive about their natural features. She wants her to drown in the sea of selfies, burn in the fire emojis commented under her Instagram posts, and peel off her skin, so she can wear it for a day and experience a life free from oppression. The tweets have a poetic quality, which highlights the emotive and graphic language and makes them more powerful.
These scenes are followed by the public’s reactions, which the two girls act out. They both do a brilliant job at portraying the different characters, seamlessly flipping between accents and movement so that one minute we hear from a young woman, and the next, an older man. Of course, the reactions are not all positive. The comments gradually become more and more abusive, eventually ending in racial slurs and calls to boycott the account, underpinned by a soundtrack of monkey noises. Yet Cleo thrives on this, and the angry comments only serve to further her cause.
Both Henlon and Bannon truly excel in their roles. Henlon brings a raw grit and determination to the character of Cleo, while ensuring she remains likeable. Bannon delivers clever one-liners, which make the audience laugh out loud. Their easy banter in the first section, and later, the hurt they display when recounting upsetting situations in the past feels so genuine, it is easy to forget that we are watching a play.
At the end, Kara directly addresses the audience, asking what we will do now. The call-to-action is an effective ending, however, the intense eye contact that the pair make with the camera goes on for a little too long, and quickly becomes awkward. Despite this, seven methods of killing kylie jenner is an excellent piece of theatre, jam-packed with themes that are guaranteed to make the audience think.
Tickets for the digital version of seven methods of killing kylie jenner cost £10 for a 48 hour rental.
Words by Ellen Leslie
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