Theatre review: Royals of Kihikihi

Holly Shervey in Royals of Kihikihi. Photo / Supplied

In a great touch, the first light seen in this real-time apres-funeral dramedy is the flickering blue of a television. Semi-comatose, Violet watches the Kardashian sisters fight. Later, she models her communication strategies on the reality TV stars, but Khloe's scriptwriters would struggle to keep up with the memorable insults that playwright Samuel Christopher gives his family of characters.

Violet says her brother's ex "smelled like herpes"; their sister Patsy says Violet "graduated from the Lindsay Lohan school of f***ing nothing". Then comes the worst insult of all: "you're just like Mum" - the mother they just buried.

Christopher has an excellent ear for the cadences and pungency of Kiwi dialogue. If the play had stuck to young adult sibling dynamics and arguments, both funny and blame-game serious, it would have been an unreservedly entertaining hour.

However, the simmering melodrama boils over near the end - and the Mummy-Dearest revelations lack detail and are therefore neither convincing nor satisfying. This is not a play about grim issues; it is a play which uses them merely as narrative device.

The piece also leaves several ends loose as if it's only three acts of a five-act play, but that feels more real than resolution would. The characters have offstage lives we know little about; a nice hint of complexity.

Holly Shervey is rather compelling as intense, troubled Violet - she's even believable when she says "I didn't mean to upset him" after saying horrid things to her brother; Violet doesn't know the power of her own words. Luci Hare also does a great job of Patsy, the annoying Pollyanna of the family, who only wants to talk of the funeral's "nice touches" and believes if she doesn't speak of unpleasant things then they will go away.

Against type, Sylvia Rands plays a slightly-underwritten working-class broad, and the effect is hammy and slightly patronising but her enjoyment is infectious.

Surprisingly, there are no Lorde jokes. A good introduction to a promising young playwright for $20.

Where: Vault, Q Theatre Vault, to September 27
Reviewer: Janet McAllister