Sixth-graders reenact a local hate crime for reasons that don’t particularly make sense in David Jacobi’s Ready Steady Yeti Go, a talent showcase for its gifted 20something ensemble that would work even better with age-appropriate casting.

Despite being the only black girl in her otherwise white school, Carly (Jasmine St. Clair) hasn’t had it all that different from her classmates, that is until a racist epithet gets spray-painted on her family’s home.

Now, some months later, Carly and her friends have gathered to reenact the incident, not (as would make more sense) to reveal to the community (or to us in the audience) the full story behind the spray-painting but because Carly wants to “know everything” about what happened, a premise that doesn’t pay off since nothing gets revealed that Carly didn’t already know, nor is the perpetrator’s motivation ever made clear or their out-of-character racism ever explained or explored.

On the plus side, Jacobi has created characters who are both painfully real and unexpectedly first-impression-defying, beginning with brothers Gandry (Kenney Selvey) and Goon (Ryan Brophy), the former as good as the latter is bad (or at least until you dig a little deeper).

Also along for the ride are high-achieving Katie (Rori Flynn) and self-effacing Barry (Randolph Thompson), who not only play themselves but get to double as adults and others, Katie as well-meaning but out-of-touch teacher Mrs. Apple (and as Goon and Gandry’s Mom), Barry as neighboring town know-it-all Wikipedia Jones and Officer Ed, whose “Just Say No” lecture is as whacked as Mrs. Apple’s is on racism.

Despite its relatively short 95-minute running time, Ready Steady Yeti Go could use a trim. The first Ouija Board sequence seems unnecessary, a little of Wikipedia Jones goes a long way, and an at-home scene between Carly and her parents doesn’t add enough to justify its inclusion, though it does allow St. Clair to play all three characters quite spectacularly.

There’s nothing at all superfluous about anything involving Goon, and not just because the role offers Brophy another chance to dig deep and dazzle. Whether in scenes opposite Selvey’s sunshine-personified Gandry or St. Clair’s skittish but captivated Carly, Goon ends up the evening’s most affecting, stereotype-defying surprise.

It’s great fun seeing Flynn and Thompson both as Katie and Barry and in the featured roles they play. (Flynn’s Mrs. Apples is absolutely bananas.) Indeed it’s hard to imagine a more talented young ensemble than this latest Rogue Machine cast, astutely directed by Guillermo Cienfuegos to never overplay their tweenness.

Still, however understandable the decision to cast adult actors as children (for practical reasons if not for lack of qualified 12-year-olds in a city as talent-blessed as Los Angeles), I can’t help thinking how much more effective Ready Steady Yeti Go would be with an honest-to-goodness preteen cast. (Try to imagine Stranger Things with older actors playing Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Eleven and you’ll get what I mean.)

Scenic designer David A. Mauer’s fabulous outdoor set, Dan Cole’s details-adding props, and Christine Cover Ferro’s terrific adults-as-kids costumes look even better under Matt Richter’s vibrant lighting.

Sound designer Corwin Evans not only inserts just-right music and effects, but manages to have many of them pop out intricately timed from a handheld boombox.

Morgan Wilday’s “Shades” (a character not in Jacobi’s script) serves as a kind of onstage stage manager, Myrna Gawryn scores points for her movement direction, and Patrick Mate’s LeVar Burton mural earns the evening’s biggest unscripted laughs.

Ready Steady Yeti Go is produced by John Perrin Flynn and Mauer,

Joshua Chamberlain is assistant director. Kaitlin Chang is associate lighting director. Ramón Valdez is stage manager. Amanda Bierbauer is production manager and Mauer is technical director. Casting is by Victoria Hoffman.

Ultimately, though there’s much to recommend in this National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, Ready Steady Yeti Go is not quite ready to go as is. As a showcase for its talented cast, it’s a winner. With some rethinking, rewrites, and cuts, it might be a real keeper. With actual kids playing kids, it would be something else indeed.

The Electric Lodge, 1416 Electric Ave., Venice.
www.roguemachinetheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
June 23, 2019
Photos: John Perrin Flynn

Tags: David Jacobi, Los Angeles Theater Review, Rogue Machine Theatre