Dan Giovannoni's play looks at three events that spark activism - a slap, a bang and a kiss - and how this activism spreads. The three actors share narration - while each primarily carries one of the events, there is trade off between them at various points. The plotting gets a little schematic as the activism spreads for each of the characters, and it does tend to lean towards inspirational positivity rather than dwelling into the deeper questions of carrying on an activists life, of keeping dedication in the face of challenges and in remaining inspired, but it's well directed by Katy Maudlin, giving the stage activity and liveliness in the trade off between the three performers.
Sarah Fitzgerald, Tomas Kantor and Tsungirai Wachenuka give the material their all, whether in the static opening areas or the more physically active later developments, and are passionate and intriguing speakers - combining passion with their youth in ways that completely captures the attention. Kate Davis' set incorporating small apparently concrete blocks which can be rearranged with ease, giving it variety and versatlity as the story moves around and building conclaves for the actors to move towards. Amalia Lever-Davidson's lighting design is almost part of the set, varying from tight closeups to larger sprawling sequences using the whole space, and never wavers in giving us something interesting to look at.
I must admit I think this is a really well produced and directed production of a play that feels a little rudimentary - the ideas never really stretch much further than "activism Yay". But I also suspect as a 50-something year old man this won't hold the appeal for me that it might for the teenagers it's clearly written for. In any event, this was a one-night-and-one-afternoon stand at the Q, and I suspect it may have an appeal to a wider audience than that suggests.
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