[Your Name] (KXT on Broadway) ★★★★

Written by Kate Bubalo. KXT on Broadway. 14-29 Jun, 2024.

[Your Name] (not related to the adored anime of the same name) plays with the specific corner of fandom that is slash-fiction to hilarious and heartwarming results. It’s horny, fumbling, silly and strangely emotional – like watching the early years of Tumblr being brought to life on stage.

Back in 2013, three fourteen year old schoolgirls, the headstrong Petra (Evelina Singh), the nervous Kris (Lola Bond) and self-doubting Nadine (Georgia McGinness) are writing anonymous sultry fan-fiction about a boy wizard named Larry (Andrew Fraser) and his school rival, Your Name (as in, “insert [Your Name] here”). They’re working out their anxieties and dreams about puberty and sex through their writing, and publishing it online. But when Kris accidentally submits Petra’s latest chapter to their young teacher Mr. Isaacs (also Andrew Fraser) instead of their group report… things get weird for everyone.  

If you’ve never been a part of a fandom, whether it’s a TV show, a film franchise, novels, comics, games, sports, even deities (what is religion other than glorified fandom), then you don’t know the intricate ways it can be both liberating and repressive. It’s clear writer Kate Bubalo knows that world, because [Your Name] is full of loving and insightful specificity that can only come from inside the community.

Grounding the story in Harry Potter-esque teen fandom (with a liberal dose of Twilight as well), Bubalo and director Lily Hayman use every opportunity to layer in more phallic imagery and dry humping, without losing grip on the core of the story – the complexities of female friendship in those fraught pubescent years. 

Bubalo’s script is full of great lines (Nadine’s quick-witted take down of Petra’s use of the phrase “slut shaming” had the packed audience in stitches), and cheeky references to the books & films of the Potter franchise. The words are elevated (or… levitated?) to greater heights by some fearless camp performances. Bond’s Kris is adorably disastrous as she goes from raucous laughter to full-blown panic attack. Singh throws herself into Petra’s purple prose with gusto (Intimacy Co-ord Shondelle Pratt had her work cut out for her). McGinness shows us there is more behind Nadine’s eyes at all times, she is the glue that holds these three together. When McGinness gets to play Nadine’s mother for a scene – she steals the show.

Not to take the spotlight off the women in this female-centred story, but Fraser’s dual role as the increasingly frazzled Aussie teacher Larry Isaacs and the much lusted after English boy wizard, also named Larry – it’s a whole plot thing – needs to be singled out. Fraser is running a marathon doing quick changes, being acrobatically thrown around the stage (by magic and the horny girls) and tearing his hair out as a young teacher on the verge of a nervous breakdown. When he takes on a show-stopping third role, somehow channelling both Ralph Fiennes and Leigh Bowery… well, it hits new heights.

The unsung hero of the play is director Hayman who not only keeps things running at a brisk pace (the show is just over 90 minutes but completely satisfying on every level), but never sacrifices the comedy or the heart. A quick glance at the show’s programme says she’s come up through the glory days of Tumblr (a safe space for niche, queer fandoms), and it shows. There is a breadth and depth of knowledge and love here. Together with Tyler Fitzpatrick’s stage & lighting (which is more evolved than I expected it to be) and Clare Hennessy’s sound which brings the ‘magic’ to life, this is a real hit.

I’m no stranger to nerdy fandoms, and take exception to shows that mock them (it was my one real complaint about Ride The Cyclone) but [Your Name] is a comedy full of appreciation for the bonds and joy that being a freak in your own little world can bring.