JADAR

★★★☆☆

A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First is an absurdist exploration of an American childhood, the Vietnam war, and identity, told by two boy scouts, from the co-writers and performers Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland.

Rice and Roland start as they mean to go on practically cartwheeling in, as the audience is quickly introduced to two ruddy-faced boy scouts, a car tyre (more on this later) and their innermost thoughts. For the next 50 minutes, the audience accompanies these two boys on their observations on the world, experiences and, at times, hilarious interactions. 

The two boy scouts are chaotic, playful and complex, which Rice and Roland effortlessly capture in both their writing and performance. Performed in the round, they work together in a form of coordinated choreography and blocking, which provides a great pace and rhythm to the production.

Although the staging is limited – indeed the car tyre is both the set and the only prop – it is still effective. As Rice and Roland dart, climb, dance, play fight and crawl their way through their childhood and their American identity, the audience travels with them. A careful soundtrack is used, and with the same juvenile imagination the boys inhibit, any number of locations or people can be imagined. 

Alongside the impressively timed use of sound effects and music, a special note should go to the excellent harmonica playing. Whether it was providing an irritating bee or a mournful rendition of ‘Yesterday’, it added another layer to the production. 

Plot-wise, it is as chaotic as you would expect the inner-monologue of two boy scouts to be. Several narratives exist alongside each other, as Rice and Roland jump between the most menial dialogue to the more abstract and surreal. This can be complex, and maybe it was the 9pm start time, but it was difficult to follow at times. Some motifs were easy to catch onto, the deteriorating national anthem for example, but other things passed over your head. It felt at times that the audience were somewhat lost, but maybe, of course, this was intended. 

The performance did particularly well in responding to a medical emergency, and were able to pause and resume well. It should be noted at this point that the production does have strong lighting, which given that it is set in the round, is visible to all audience members. 

As the title suggests, this was never going to be a simple play. Obvious themes of politics, nationalism and religion were threaded throughout, intertwined with war, the Scouts, gender roles and childhood. An intriguing, interesting and dynamic mix for a Thursday evening.

A Letter To Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First runs at the King’s Head Theatre until September 14.