Wise Beyond Her Years

by Steve Cohen

Kimberly Akimbo is a clever play that has too many ingredients for its own good. The comic drama by acclaimed 34-year-old David Lindsay-Abaire presents a heroine afflicted by progeria, the rare and fatal genetic condition of accelerated aging in children. Philadelphia Theatre Workshop is giving the work its Philadelphia debut.

How a teenager and her parents cope with her condition is a rich enough subject to fill the evening. Then Lindsay-Abaire throws in a marital crisis, hidden sexual secrets and a criminal scheme. He adroitly juggles these elements, but the shifting of gears is often noticeable. Events occur because they'll make the play interesting, rather than developing naturally from the characters.

Kimberly is a 16-year-old in an aging woman's body. Her mother, Pattie, is also a baby in the body of an adult. Self-absorbed and immature, she is about to deliver another child while complaining about her own maladies. Kimberly's father is a long-suffering man with a pattern of avoiding issues, often by drinking. Kimberly, therefore, has learned to play the adult of the family.

Bursting into the home comes Pattie's sister, an ex-con with an illegal plan to capitalize on her niece's condition. She also reveals past betrayals to Kimberly, thus setting up a denouement that works best if not revealed. A classmate of Kimberly's, with family problems of his own, befriends the girl and eventually becomes her partner in a crime.

Instead of taking the more predictable path of showing a kid in a grownup's body, Lindsay-Abaire gives us the more complex story of a teen who is preternaturally old in psyche as well as in body. Average life expectancy of a person with her condition is said to be 16. (The Progeria Research Foundation reports it is only 13.) Little wonder, then, that her parents "forget" to observe her 16th birthday. Kimberly repeatedly asks her parents to confront issues rather than avoid them, and, in the end, she aggressively seizes an opportunity to grab something before it's too late.

Janey Giel looks perfect as the aging Kimberly, but her voice is too soft and reticent. Neither her scripted lines nor her delivery bring out the essential adolescence of her character. Joseph Nevin, as her classmate, is superb in this regard. Janine White is a delight as Pattie, with great physical shtick and deadpan comic skills. Joe Leduc and Marie Howey make their less-developed characters into sympathetic souls. Robin Eisenberg directs skillfully, bringing special magic to the humorous moments.

KIMBERLY AKIMBO Through March 13, Philadelphia Theatre Workshop at Walnut Street Theatre Studio, Ninth and Walnut sts., fifth floor, 215-635-2137