These Youths Be Protesting (KXT on Broadway) ★★★

Written by Izabella Louk. World Premiere. KXT on Broadway. 4-19 April, 2025.

Energetic and entertaining, These Youths Be Protesting shouts loudly about big topics but doesn’t really say a great deal.

A high school club set up to encourage recycling by wannabe School Captain Lemon (Karrine Kanaan) and her best friend/obedient sidekick Georgie (Rachel Thomas) becomes the unwitting focal point of environmental activism thanks to the arrival of the determined Mandi (Mây Trần). Carrying along popular slacker Jimbo (Hamish Alexander), the teens find themselves face-to-face with local politicians, the media, the internet, and an impending new local mine as they try to make their voices heard and fight for their future.

The climate crisis is the existential issue of our time, yet it seems everyone just wants to ignore it (*stares at the current government). For all the corporate and political lip service to “sustainable futures,” we are no closer to a solution despite knowing what needs to be done. And it’s the younger generations who’ll bear the brunt of the problems we’re failing to address.

In tackling this weighty topic, These Youths Be Protesting suffers from an unbearable lightness of being, using these issues as a backdrop for a teen friendship comedy. It’s less Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, as the marketing suggests, and more The Breakfast Club, with a group of unlikely students becoming a close-knit team, bound together by varying degrees of concern for the environment.

It’s in these awkward bonds of friendship and budding adulthood that the show finds its footing, playing with the sometimes confusing nature of teenage relationships and gradual self-discovery. In this, the cast excel with fun and genuine performances rooted in youthful insecurities and dreams.

Writer/director Izabella Louk has a firm grasp of narrative and character. Despite some repetitive beats and a bit of clunky scripting near the very end, the show is undoubtedly pleasant and entertaining, in no small part due to the cast’s energy. You can almost hear their panting as they race through the corridors of KXT on Broadway to make their next entrance on the other side of the stage.

But while the play touches on a variety of closely related topics (protest vs working within the system, token environmentalism, mental health etc), it never really goes deep, resulting in moments that preach a very basic message to the choir rather than issuing a rallying cry. This isn’t a guidebook for better action or a critique of the world; it’s a simple snapshot of teenage life that, for all its comic moments, doubles down on nihilism.

Coming in at under 90 minutes (three cheers for shorter one-act plays!), These Youths Be Protesting has the laughs, performances, and vivacity to keep you engaged. Ironically, for a play about mining, it just doesn’t go very deep.