Review: With the Needle that Sings in Her Heart

Ok so I’m still digesting this play. So maybe I’ll start with how I even found out about it. I was bored in Lexington and so I decided to Google events. Ladedadeda up comes an article about the high school play that is being done with Amanda Palmer. I pause thinking, “Huh, that name sounds familiar…” Turns out that indeed this is the same person that I’ve been blithely reading about for the past while on Neil Gaiman’s blog. Go fig. So I go get tickets for my grandma and I.

I had no idea what this play was about besides that it featured Anne Frank and had something to do with the Neutral Milk Hotel’s album, “In an Aeroplane Over the Sea.” That’s it. So I had no preconceptions or expectations. I know very little about Amanda Palmer beyond a brief read of her blog post explaining her connection LHS’s drama department and watching one video of the Dresden Dolls.

Ok I think I’ve digested enough…

“With The Needle That Sings In Her Heart” picks up just after Anne is taken by the Nazis. However while it does depict the horrors that a young girl growing up goes through while in a camp. Trust me they don’t skimp on the horrors. Dispersed throughout the play are the songs from Neutral Milk Hotel’s afore mentioned album sung by the cast. Not too horribly out of tune either.

Yet what seems to be at the heart of the play is this struggle between Anne’s penchant to escape the horrible by turning it into a fantastical situations and the macabre reality of the situation. This conflict is personified by the two circus style ringmasters. The macabre, played by Amanda Palmer, and the optimistic fantasy MC/ringmaster who wants to help save Anne, played by Alex Parrish.

And in the beginning the fantasy seems to be winning. It gives Anne hope, it allows her to escape. But as things grow more and more desperate the macabre begins to seep in until finally it takes over the fantasy. Anne in desperation can no longer tell the reality from the imaginary and in the end, well, we know how her story ends.

Minus some not too devastating technical difficulties I’d have to say this was one of the best plays I’ve seen in a while and I just got back from London. In a lot of ways it really reminded me of “Spring Awakening” and I actually liked it better.

What was really astounding though, was that these were high school students. They helped write this play, were the actors, were band and were the tech. Amanda Palmer and the Director Steven Bogart were critical, I have no doubt, but damn it the students were the ones that really pulled it off.

I mean it, they did. There were a few moments where I honest thought that I would be sick or cry. I don’t have a weak stomach and it’s not like they were gory. It was simply well done and acted, thus I empathized with the characters. There was a reason they got a standing ovation when it ended.

So congrats to Lexington High School Fine and Performing Arts Department, it was an excellent performance!