How My Light Is Spent (KXT) ★★★½

Written by Alan Harris. Presented by Secret House in association with Bakehouse Theatre Company. KXT on Broadway. 11-26 Sep, 2026.

“Do we have a certain amount of light, and when that’s gone, we’re gone?”

Jimmy (James Smithers) and Kitty (Jane Angharad) are stuck in Newport, Wales, dreaming of different lives. Jimmy is in his 30s, living with his mother and working in Newport’s only drive-through donut shop. Kitty is a phone-sex worker saving to go to university. At first, their phone conversations are purely sexual, but over months the socially awkward Jimmy shares more about himself than just his fantasies — until one day Jimmy wakes up to discover that his hands have disappeared…

There is a surreally silly sweetness to Alan Harris’ short play. Beneath the magic lies the loneliness of people lost around the edges of modern life. Maybe the best you can hope for in life is a wank and a donut?

I couldn’t help but think about another KXT show from earlier this year, Gary Owen’s Romeo & Julie, another Welsh story of a young couple trying to find a path to a better future, and in some ways Jimmy & Kitty could be their older/multiverse versions. Both plays are filled with simple, honest heart, but where Romeo & Julie had the advantage of youthful optimism, Jimmy & Kitty feels like desperation has clawed deeper into their psyches, leading to a fantastical finale.

Jimmy & Kitty’s story is helped along by a particularly dry-tongued “Greek chorus” — Renée Billing, Pita Lolohea and Kira McLennan — who double as supporting characters. Director Braiden Toko uses James Smithers’ set of light boxes and mirrors to create an intimate space that bridges the physical separation between the characters. They rarely look directly at each other, but the connection always feels strong.

In many ways this is a slight work. Just over an hour long (I won’t lie, I rejoiced at the running time) and focused on a simple story, it would be easy to dismiss were it not for the easy elegance of the comic writing and the charm on display from the whole cast.

While the ending of How My Light Is Spent reaches for a beautiful, magical conclusion to these characters’ pain (and it is nice to indulge in a beautiful fantasy), only one feeling really remains… melancholy. Real life can’t be this poetic in the end.