We sent our reviewer James to watch The Strongest Girl in the World

The Strongest Girl in the World opens promisingly with a lovely pop-up book campfire and the sound of crackling logs evoking halcyon days of summer camp. After a little more light-hearted introduction, the dark skies on the horizon that the audience are anticipating come in fairly short order as the narrator announces, ‘I am Truly Siskind-Weiss and when I was ten, my father died of stage 4 kidney cancer’. What follows is a memory play looking at the lead up to and consequences of this traumatic event on the young protagonist.

Setting it apart from other similar endeavours, the recurrent use of pop-up books is a strong and fun addition. Siskind-Weiss’ singing of campfire-style songs to link various sections of the narrative is likewise very effective. There is also a brief shadow sequence remembering aping her father shaving in the bathroom mirror which is quite beautiful. I wish there had been more moments like these.The

The play touches on some potentially interesting supporting characters as well – a mother strong in the face of terrible circumstances, an older sister navigating grief in her own way, whilst simultaneously trying to be there for her sibling, and a somewhat oddly oblivious therapist. There are definite rich themes here that would be worth exploring in more depth.

That they aren’t delved into in greater detail does weaken the piece somewhat. In addition, the repetition of the motif, ‘I am Truly Siskind-Weiss and…’, whilst initially strong and serving to introduce certain aspects of her character, is sadly overused and unfortunately becomes a little monotonous. It also emphasises the fact that, with a few notable exceptions, the narrative relies on telling the audience things, rather than showing them. Coupled with the framing device setting events in the past, within which all-too-brief memories are also related in the past, this leads to both a lack of immediacy in the piece as well as a slightly confused narrative. Whilst the piece seems to seek to attribute this to the ‘messiness of remembering’, it doesn’t quite address the purpose of this provocation. Monologues are tricky to handle and this one, though nice enough, never quite catches light.

The Strongest Girl in the World is a pleasant enough piece solidly delivered with a couple of lovely stand-out moments of which I wish there were more.

RATING: ***’ 3.5 Stars

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