Hannah Baumgardner - Attending performances (7 points)

 

Hannah Baumgardner (C/O '26) - Visiting Galleries/Museums (7 points) 

What is the setting (time period, location, etc.) of this production, and how does the setting inform the actions and decisions of the black characters?

The show is set in present-day England in the main character Cleo’s bedroom. Though the set design is primarily a bedroom, a significant portion of the show takes place in the Twitter “timeline,” more specifically, the part of the app where users can view each other’s tweets. Cleo, within the comfort of her own space and under the pseudonym “incognegro,” unabashedly posts death threats towards Kylie Jenner, with each post becoming more outrageous and violent than the last. Cleo feels little remorse in making these threats, as she feels justified in her actions and protected behind her computer screen. However, Twitter users soon uncover Cleo’s problematic tweets from years ago and threaten to find her address once they no longer see her behavior as entertainment. From then on, Cleo’s virtual world dangerously teeters into the real world, causing Cleo to think about her actions and consider if the tirade is worth it anymore.

How was blackness portrayed in this production? Were you watching black characters, or characters who just so happened to be black? Can you tie the exploration of blackness in this work to any of your classes at Spelman?

Cleo and Kara, the main character and her best friend, are both black characters, though Kara is biracial, an identity that serves as a point of contention throughout the show. For both characters, their blackness is weaponized and vilified. For Cleo, the attack is external and virtual, primarily coming from Twitter users throwing slurs and mocking her race. For Kara, it is Cleo who weaponizes her Blackness, using her biracial identity to question whether Kara can genuinely understand the experiences of monoracial Black women and their animosity toward Kylie Jenner. The dialogue regarding the experiences of blackness reminds me of a lecture in ADW when my class listened to Nina Simone’s song, “Four Women.” In her song, Simone tells the story of four black women, each with a different complexion yet equally in pain.

There are many ways to tell a story. Describe a non-dialogue-driven method of storytelling in this production (music, set decision, technology integration, etc.) Has watching this production impacted your opinion of the importance of theater as an expression of black storytelling? Why or why note?

A large portion of the play takes place on the Twitter “timeline,” which is a collection of anonymously posted tweets expressing amusement, disdain, or vitriol towards Cleo’s tweets. Though the timeline never shows a direct conversation between users, both Cleo and Kara, and the audience watch as the virtual audience becomes progressively more aggressive towards Cleo, often pushing the narrative through threats or harassment.

Watching a play set in Gen Z culture truly opened my eyes to how charged social media is and how much it has shaped my generation’s language, ideas of activism, and relationships. In that sense, the play, despite some overuse of text-speak and acronyms, was pretty accurate in how Gen Z operates, especially in the virtual realm and in friendships. The show deepened my understanding of theater as an expression of black storytelling, and I’m beyond excited to see what else Spelman’s theater department has in store this season.