Written by Jennifer Adam
Directed by Steve Small
Review by Rose Sarafilovic
What could cause someone to bring a knife to school? What could cause them to use it? How do you stop them? And how much are you to blame if you don’t?
Balisong by Jennifer Adam answers these questions with force and nuance. This play is delivered like a story you would hear at school lunch, with Aaron (William Alexander), Rachel (Evie Mortimer) and Evie (Kathryn Scott) telling us about their friend Findlay Richards, each taking turns and interjecting with information as they deem it relevant, and how he went from being enraptured by magic tricks and the attention they garnered him to someone far more interested in the eponymous balisong (a butterfly knife for those unfamiliar) and the adoration and fear it drew from those around him and eventually the ruin it could cause if he used it against someone.
The performances from the three actors are stellar; their deliveries were tight, and the chemistry between them was genuine, as is to be expected of three high school friends. The design (by Katie Innes) was minimalistic in a way that helped accentuate the story being told, and the lighting (by George Cort) added to the severity and atmosphere of the more dramatic scenes to excellent effect.
It would be remiss of me to talk about this play without talking about the central conceit. Balisong is a ‘Message Play’ in the truest sense; it’s designed specifically to draw attention to youth knife crime and help young people (specifically high schoolers) be able to identify the ways they could spot and prevent knife crime before it begins. It does this exceptionally well. The choice not to have Findlay present onstage helps to place him instead in the mind of the audience so they can project him and his behaviours onto their peers is genius. And the message line “Because if you know…and you don’t stop it, don’t say anything… then you might as well be the one holding the weapon.” is genuinely affecting in context. Balisong is an important contemporary play for today’s youth, and one I sincerely hope reaches, and has reached, the audiences who most need it.
An Important Contemporary Piece
Balisong was performed at The Traverse Theatre
Review by Rose Sarafilovic (contact@corrblimey.uk)
Rose is a theatre technician, playwright and producer of the monthly performing arts and poetry event A Stop On The Road. With Rose – specialties lay somewhere around absurdism, Shakespeare, new writing and lighting designing musicals. Rose is well versed in many different theatrical forms and has an intimate knowledge of everything it takes to bring a production to the stage. Whenever she isn’t writing, watching, or doing tech for a show she can be found thinking about doing one of those things, preferably while talking to a friend.
Rose is excited to finally be reviewing for Corr Blimey, something that she knows will expand her horizons and allow her to experience a greater breadth of theatre than she’s had access to before!
