Noir, romance, music, poetry and more come together in the theatrical tornado that is Undermain Theatre’s H•llo K•tty Syndrome (Photos courtesy of Undermain Theatre)
RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer
Rich@DallasVoice.com
Playwright Brian Dang is bringing more than a show to Undermain Theatre’s stage this weekend. H•llo K•tty Syndrome sounds more like a theatrical tornado that’s about to sweep everyone into a frenzy in this professional premiere.
Swirling with noir, romance, music, poetry and seemingly any and all other stage elements that can be wedged into the show, Dang and director Garret Storms are intent on challenging the audience that centers on fans of a popular character.
The title character, HK, loses their job as a police officer, breaks up with their cowboy partner and has a beef with their brother-in-law. HK is flailing amid family drama.
But why is nobody talking about HK’s outfit, which is a Hello Kitty mascot costume?
Not even Dang or Storms can answer. Or maybe they just prefer not to.
The show opened Thursday, May 1, and runs through May 25. Although H•llo K•tty Syndrome features an approximation of a children’s character, it is definitely not intended for children under 13 years old.
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H*llo K*tty Syndrome
Written by: Brian Dang
Directed by: Garret Storms
Cast: Jess Anoruigwe, Ryan Michael Friedman, Marianne Galloway,
Parker Gray, Captain Milbourn
Costume Design: Aaron Patrick DeClark
Sound Design: Claudia Jenkins Martinez
Music Director: Paul Semrad
Lighting Design: Luke Atkison
Scenic Design: Leah Mazur
Properties Design: Rayven Harris
Stage Manager: Julissa Hernandez
Assistant Stage Manager: Joseph Martinez
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Ahead of the opening, Dang and Storms discussed the show’s beginnings and where it just might land for audiences.
The inception of mayhem
Dang: The show came from this interview on NPR where a reporter stated that Sanrio, the creator of Hello Kitty, corrected the public record that it was not a cat, but a little girl. That was already enough for a show, but then the reporter was so adamant about her view of the character.
Part of me was angry, and part of me was intrigued and curious. We have a lot of feelings about her, and I began excavating the way she was perceived to set the play.
But then it also started to morph away from that.
Morphing into a whole meow mix of theater genres
Storms: Yeah, I mean, we’re still figuring it out. What you’ll see is a group of great actors and a story that interrogates the ideas of theater and asks us what we want to see. And also, hopefully, at the end of the day it is also wildly entertaining.
There’s the Alice in Wonderland trope, where everything is weird, and we just go with it. This story is like that, but it defies your definitions of what it is or wants to be. Yes, there’s a lot of genre work in it, and then it breaks down into something else so it’s a shifty little play — shifty in a way that causes you to lean into it.
Dang: What you’ll see is a family drama, a noir, a romance with a quartet, an open mic, a dance, a confession. You’ll see poetry, and, so, when Garret says it’s a shifty play that’s true. It’s a suspicious play, because when I first started, I did not know exactly where it would end up.
Queer ‘K*tty’?
Dang: Ultimately, its approach to theater is informed by a queerness. I would also say it is explicitly quite queer in the content, and HK has a framing of being nonbinary and trans, but also, it’s a little opaque on purpose.
Storms: Brian’s exactly right. The structure of this play is queer, and it sort of uses that to its advantage. This show inverts that expectation in some ways. I think we could spend so much time unpacking that, but I feel it parallels many people’s queer journeys.
Dang: We’ve put what we think of queerness into a syringe and have mainlined it into the bloodstream of this play, and now we’re watching it ooze out, like we’ve put too much, and this body of a play is bleeding out, and we’re just watching it, like, die.
This is made by and for queer people, but also it’s about how do we move forward together beyond the sort of assignment-based queerness that might be actually quite harmful.
For tickets, visit Undermain.org