Kill Me from Argentina’s Marina Otero is a howl, a shriek, a guttural wail. Of pain, of angst, of defiance. And finally of resistance. If not quite triumph…
But it doesn’t start out like that. After a lengthy video diary preamble about Otero’s mental health journey and experience of love and disappointment in her relationship with ‘Pablo’ (Is that his real name? Does he really exist? Does it matter?), the first live image we have is of a line of near naked (they have boots and knee pads) dancers marching in time across the stage, all sporting identical shoulder length auburn wigs and soon brandishing pistols.
Immediately evoking the tumbling, writhing female silhouettes that we’d see in the archetypal James Bond credit sequence, but with a touch of ludicrous Austin Powers fembot energy thrown in for good measure, it’s all about timing, droll visuals and tight choreography. It’s diverting but not arresting. After all, would this really be a RISING festival without some full nudity on stage?
But unlike Florentina Holzinger’s Tanz, which was showcased in the same festival two years ago, the desire to perform without clothes here feels less like an attempt to appear cutting edge or transgressive, and more about an overarching yearning to be seen, to be transparent and to be absolutely honest about the performers’ life experiences and shared humanity.
The hook, for want of a better word, is that the small cast have all been selected by Otero because they each share with her a bipolar diagnosis. Accordingly, in turn they address the audience for their moment in the spotlight and reveal something of their history, via the songs of Edith Piaf, via a roller-skating routine or, in perhaps one of the most viscerally powerful sequences of the production, via a relationship with excess – and how a craving to be seen led to food disorders, dangerous sex and more.
Perhaps it’s not true. Perhaps it’s all a figment of the imaginations of a very clever group of devising dancers. But if that’s the case, then fair play to the team (including playwright Martín Flores Cárdenas), because the dancer in question certainly has the sort of body she describes, but clearly also has the classical training she talks of too – performing her choreography on and off axis, and en pointe.
In fact it’s doubtful that any moment of the show hits quite as hard… until we come to the finale that is, when a performance that has been fiercely personal also becomes ferociously political. And gloves come off metaphorically, but are then thrust back on literally.
It’s only two shows in, but is there a running theme in RISING 2025 of dissecting mental illness in ways that are alternately seriously funny, and then deadly serious? Because POV pulls off the same trick equally effectively.
Read: Theatre review: POV, RISING, Showroom Arts Centre Melbourne
Though, curiously, Kill Me‘s breaking of the fourth wall to address the audience directly and use of the device to deconstruct and comment on the show while it is happening is just a touch reminiscent of Kate Dolan’s award-winning show in the most recent Melbourne International Comedy Festival, The Critic.
But while in that instance there was the suspicion that this was simply a rather ingenious way of pre-empting actual critics (‘you can’t complain about this bit, because my alter ego has already told you it’s a weak gag’), with Otero’s work, it feels very much as if this nakedness, both literal and figurative, stems purely from a burning determination to be as open, as raw and as brutally self-revelatory as possible. And it works.
And by the way, Marina, you’re absolutely right about ‘Candle in the Wind’. Due to a love of Marilyn, it used to be a favourite, a genuine desert island disc, for many, many years, but then when Elton repurposed it to fit Princess Diana too, it really did become cheesy. It was diminished and lost so much of its impact. In 2025, it may be sacrilegious to say, but Robbie Williams’ ‘Angels’ (and, yes, even Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’…) can deliver a far more potent kick to the solar plexus. So you actually win. And Elton can keep his performing rights.
Kill Me, Sumner Theatre, Southbank Theatre
Text and Direction: Marina Otero
With: Ana Cotoré, Josefina Gorostiza, Natalia Lopéz Godoy, Myriam Henne-Adda, Tomás Pozzi
Live Music: Myriam Henne-Adda
Assistant Director: Lucrecia Pierpaoli
Lighting and Space Design: Victor Longás Vicente, David Seldes
Sound Design: Antonia Navarro
Costume Design: Andy Piffer
Tailoring Guadalupe: Blanco Galé
Technical Direction and Lighting on Tour: Victor Longás Vicente
Playwright: Martín Flores Cárdenas
Photography: Sofia Alazraki and Marian Caputo
Video: Florencia de Mugica
General and Executive Production: Mariano de Mendonça
Production: Marcia Rivas
Production Assistant: Kysy Fischer
Tickets: $44-$69
Kill Me will be performed at the Sumner Theatre, Southbank Theatre, Melbourne until 8 June 2025 as part of RISING.
