Attending performances (2pts)

 

On Friday, February 13, I wasn't sure what to expect when I attended the second showing of "Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner". I'm not someone who particularly enjoys plays, so I haven't been to many. I was skeptical based on the title alone because Kylie Jenner hasn't been a significant player in pop culture for some years now, and as someone who didn't care about her then, I wondered what could be said that hadn't already been said five to 6 years ago. When I read the description, my skepticism increased because of the heavy focus on social media and "Gen Z culture". In my own experience, when social media is incorporated into traditional media, it often comes off inauthentic and cringey, for lack of a better word. Little to say, I wasn't necessarily going in feeling that great about it, but I tried to keep an open mind. 

The play opens with a Forbes tweet about Kylie Jenner being the youngest billionaire. I remember when that news first came out, and despite it not really generating much from me other than an eyeroll back then, I do remember it sparking significant discourse. The main character of the play, a young Black woman named Cleo, is especially angered by the news and begins an infamous Twitter thread under the pseudonym "Incognegro" of the variety of methods that she would use to kill Kylie Jenner. The rage that she feels doesn't come out of nowhere, but is set in the context of much of Kylie Jenner's success being predicated on her appropriation of a Black feminine aesthetic that Black women and femmes are often denigrated for. Intersperse with each tweet is Cleo engaging with her best friend Kara, a queer, biracial young woman who serves as a kind of contrarian throughout the whole saga. We watch them hash out their interpersonal issues, their friendship hits a breaking point, and then they come back together at the end. 

My first thoughts upon exiting were, "This was the dumbest shit I've ever seen". However, after some processing, I still really didn't enjoy my experience, but I can pinpoint my critiques. Kylie Jenner being the inciting incident for this story just really doesn't work for me in 2026, where she is no longer relevant, and my skepticism about the use of social media as a significant part of how the play is written was proven right by how grating the actors using internet acronyms in spoken word sounded. It felt like a grown-up's interpretation of how young people talk, rather than someone who actually speaks that way. I also experienced quite a bit of cultural whiplash because the play is supposed to be centered on a Black-British context. So the adaptation by American actors and a director didn't quite flow. 

My biggest contention lies with the play's politics. The story attempts to tackle a plethora of issues, including anti-Blackness, homophobia, desirability politics, colorism, sexual violence, etc., but did not have the range to engage with those issues properly, and so it often came off bastardized or, in my opinion, straight-up disrespectful. The use of Saartje Baartman angered me, especially because it didn't feel tactful or intentional, but was another point to add to the character's motivations. It just generally felt like the story was trying to do too much at once and ended up doing none of it well. 

I honestly really wish I could speak to the playwright to see where her mind was at when she wrote this. I can give kudos to a well-put-together production in terms of its technical aspects, and I do think the actors put forth great effort with the material they were given, even if I didn't enjoy it in the end.

- Gabrielle Cassell