| A Doll’s Life – Confessions of a Quarter Life Crisis Writer/performer: Micaela Jade Tucker Director: Lara Toselli Premiered in Cape Town, November 11-20, 2024 at Only Fools, 82 Regent Rd, Sea Point, Cape Town Johannesburg 2025: Theatre on the Square, March 19-29, 2025 |
A Doll’s Life- Confessions of a Quarter Life Crisis is a smart, sassy, hard hitting comedic play. Clever, intricately articulated script by Micaela Tucker who also performs in this autobiographical play. It’s funny, hugely entertaining and poignant with a raft of take home nuggets to mull over. Tucker’s solo performance is energised and never loses its focus. Considered direction by Lara Toselli keeps the pace upbeat. The laugh lines are harnessed by moments of reflection and contemplation with a narrative through line which elevates the piece beyond stand-up comedy.
From the title, A Doll’s Life and the subtitle, Confessions of a Quarter Life Crisis, I expected a fluffy piece of theatre, with musings on hitting the milestone of 25 and looking to the big three Oh, relationships and all the rest. A Doll’s Life- Confessions of a Quarter Life Crisis is not fluff theatre. In Tucker’s quarter life crisis was life crunching as she came up against a major health scare. This is theatre of gravitas with a text which straddles a young person’s urgent reckoning with her body- her sexuality, desires, fears, anxieties and shame, in tandem with health and reproductive issues and relationships, mothers, male doctors and society.
Tucker is fiercely proud of her Jewish identity and A Doll’s Life deliciously reverberates with the mirth from her life. The narrative holds one on spielkes (Yiddish for needles – to be on tenterhooks) as one wait to hear what transpires in Tucker’s quarter life crisis. The humour veers very much into what is known in Yiddish as a bittere gelegte – a bitter joke. Tucker evokes multiple characters through accent and physical theatre, which heightens the humour. I particularly liked the conjuring up of her (male) gynaecologist and her withering commentary on how the male gaze tends to objectify and suppress female sexuality. There you are, young, talented, sexually active and loving it and then everything changes with one medical consultation as you face your mortality.
I was taken by surprise by A Doll’s Life, expecting as I say a fluff piece from the frothy title. Theatrically this is an interesting device as the piece kind of smacks you – in a good way – when you are not expecting it. It is a surprise. However I feel, that the title may give the impression that A Doll’s Life is frivolous. It is not. I love Tucker’s youthful vigour and zest in looking at sex, relationships, desire, shame and fear. She takes a deep dive into ownership of the body – her body – all of our bodies. She signals the importance of regular medical check-ups and care and vigilance over women’s health. She deep dives into territory which tends to not be spoken about beyond the presentation of the cervix during sexual education at school. There – is my plot spoiler. Watching A Doll’s Life may save someone’s life and I urge all mothers and teenage daughters to go and see it.
It is a new work and I feel could do with nips and tucks – for instance perhaps it do with some theatrical performative tightening in the ending but it is an exceptional achievement in terms of hilarious script/dialogue and performance. It is remarkable that a person of 25 (Tucker is now 26) wrote this layered and nuanced text. The writing is mature and polished. The dialogue is raw, urgent and unvarnished. If you don’t like robust language, then this piece of theatre is not for you. I look forward to this vital voice on the South African stage.
Tucker is a terrific performer who holds the audience for an hour, in her gaze, without losing a beat. She has already received recognition for her theatre work. In Johannesburg, she received a Naledi nomination for Best Breakthrough Performance’ in Janice Honeyman and Malcolm Purkey’s If A Tree Falls. A Doll’s Life- Confessions of a Quarter Life Crisis marks her debut as writer/performer and it is very impressive. The season in Cape Town sold out. Hopefully, it will return to Cape Town. A Johannesburg run has been announced: Theatre on the Square, March 19-29, 2025. Don’t miss A Doll’s Life- Confessions of a Quarter Life Crisis. I loved it.
✳Micaela Tucker in A Doll’s Life – Confessions of a Quarter Life Crisis, the comedic autobiographical solo play she wrote and performs in, Cape Town inaugural season November 11-20, 2024 at Only Fools, 82 Regent Rd, Sea Point, Cape Town. Pic supplied.
