Review: MY BROTHER’S A GENIUS, Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse - Tour
Photo credit: Chris Saunders
My Brother’s a Genius is a continuation of Sheffield Theatres’ partnership with Theatre Centre, telling stories that are important for teenagers to hear. This may be the show that has come out of this partnership that will speak to young people most effectively, possibly due to the fact that this is also a co-production with the National Youth Theatre.
We meet siblings Daisy and Luke who are both neurodiverse but present this in very different ways. Luke is the titular ‘genius’ and Daisy is very much reliant on him growing up, which makes it all the more difficult when Luke gets admitted into a special needs secondary school but Daisy has to navigate mainstream education alone. We see their shared dream of learning to fly and how this brings them together but also pushes them apart as they go to university and become very different people.
Jess Senanayake and Tyrese Walters are both wonderful as Daisy and Luke respectively. In such a short time (1 hour and 15 minutes), they take us on a rollercoaster of emotions. They are instantly likeable from their first entrance, meaning we feel all the more for them as we see their struggles. They portray both of their characters and the other cameo roles in the piece very well. They are an exceptional duo with fantastic rapport, but are equally great in their individual moments. They demonstrate impeccable diction, ensuring we don’t lose any of Debris Stevenson’s well-crafted words.
Creator and writer Stevenson flits between normal dialogue and spoken word (almost rap) seamlessly. She uses spoken word not just as a language that will resonate with young people, but as a great storytelling mechanism – when the emotions get too big, they overflow into spoken word capturing Daisy and Luke’s very busy brains as they struggle to process the world around them.
Eleanor Manners directs the production and ensures things keep moving at a rapid pace, whilst still making sure the relationship between Daisy and Luke is fully developed. It just feels as though something is missing to depict the passing of time more clearly as we move from life stage to life stage without this being made particularly known. Sound designer Jammz ensures everything is crystal clear consistently. Erin Guan’s simple set design works to depict the various locations we find ourselves in. Their costume design is fine but a few more changes might have helped us to keep track of what life stage our characters are in.
My Brother’s a Genius is an eye-opening piece for all ages, providing an insight into life as someone who is neurodiverse in a way we haven’t seen since The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. It will be particularly impactful, though, for the young people it is aimed at as they see people like them on stage speaking in their own language.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Jacob Bush