REVIEW: Guest Reviewer Sienna Brown Shares Her Thoughts on LOW LEVEL PANIC

Saturday February 10th 7:30pm KXT Broadway

LOW LEVEL PANIC at KXT on Broadway 

What Young Women Want could be another name for Bakehouse Theatre Company’s 2024 season launch of LOW LEVEL PANIC, by Clare McIntyre, at KXT on Broadway. Set in a share house bathroom, the set works brilliantly for the unique nature of the KXT theatre space with the audience sitting across from each other, on opposite sides of the stage.

Three young women Jo (played by Charlotte de Wit), Mary (played by Marigold Pazar) and Celia (played by Megan Kennedy) share a flat with the bathroom (the only room we see) providing an intimate space to reveal the characters’ reflections and fantasies about sex or sexual encounters and to make commentary on how they perceive or are perceived by men.

Jo lives in a world of sexual fantasies, all of which would be fulfilled if only she was slimmer and more beautiful, then men (all wealthy and handsome) would adore and ravish her. She can only contemplate her world through the lens of ‘if only’, and is unable to empathise with Mary, the slim and pretty one who only seeks to stay safe and away from the very men Jo fantasises about. Celia the practical and realistic one of the three, who is always needing to tidy up after her two flatmates, provides the comedic relief and her self-assurance provides a balance, between the other two.  

As the play unfolds, a powerfully directed re-enactment of Mary’s traumatic encounter with several men, provides the backdrop against which the play revolves, climaxing in the preparation for the girls getting ready to go out to a party. The aftermath of which brings all the scenes together.

Although Clare McIntyre’s play premiered in London in 1988, we are still dealing with the very issues it raises and are just as valid today. The impact of social media constantly bombarding us with airbrushed images of how we should look and the lie that being wealthy will solve all the loneliness, self-loathing and body shaming is vibrantly reflected in this play.

The night I was there, the audience was entranced by the production and responded very well to LOW LEVEL PANIC as ‘season opening’ for 2024Bakehouse.

Produced by HER Productions from Newcastle, the small, female-founded company is led by producers Marigold Pazar, co-founder and co-artistic director, and co-artistic director Charlotte De Wit. Both are performing in this play and joined on stage by Megan Kennedy.

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