WHERE DO YOU stand in your life’s plot, right now? At your age, whatever it may be, can you look back in anguish at opportunities lost and errors made with astuteness and perspective? Or can you pat yourself sincerely on the back for conquering your dragons? South African performer, Micaela Jade Tucker takes the behemoth of being alive for some 25 years by its horns, in her monodrama A Doll’s Life: Confessions of a Quarter Life Crisis, which is onstage at Theatre on the Square in Sandton until 29 March 2025.
And here we find everything from an intelligent reflection on what a surprise sinister medical diagnosis means, to a rather callow examination of elements of the Jewish community, all wrapped together with autobiographical nuggets that make the story her own. She’s an absolutely lovely performer, engaging with the complexities of sewing your wild oats – especially if you’re a girl – and being in the theatre industry, especially if you’re a freelancer. With the flick of an eyelash, she’s a condescending gynaecologist who knew her mum fifty years ago, or a monosyllabic European adonis with scant relationship potential in Kenya.
Jewishness comes considerably under her gaze in this work – from a use of the specifically South African Jewish dialect, values and expletives, which was common parlance some fifty years ago, to the crudely structured stereotypes of mother, doctor, suitor – this part of the work is necessary, but feels dated in how it represents the Jewish community.
While her humour is cringeworthy and relatable, the nub of the play is very dark and resonates with beautiful sophistication on a “white noise moment” in a doctor’s consulting room, with multiple pictures of other people’s babies in their amniotic fluid on the walls, her own mother paralysed speechless next to her, and her emotions going through several wringers in numbing free-fall spontaneously. It’s a moment so potent and universal inserted in a very specific context that allows the story to breathe, for everyone.
On a level, this work is an advocacy piece about taking care of a woman’s body, with all its tendencies to pick up judgement, viruses and other things, along the way. It’s about broken condoms as it is about reeling ideas in and taking complex responsibility for who you are – or who you think you are – in the world. And yes, it has all the makings of a ‘chick play’, but it’s too well-made and thoughtful to descend into the morass of empty-headed shrieking kugels that its title implies. It also may be triggering to audience members who have experienced medical diagnoses that have changed the paths of their lives.
The work is detailed and brief, well-constructed and has an end evocative of that of Adolescence, the current British Netflix series that is on everyone’s lips. It’s devastating and moving without being explicit, and the tale’s logical closure wisely falls way beyond the spotlight of this theatre piece.
Tucker is a young performer, making various noises in the industry, but this is her debut work generated by her own pen. With the kind of chutzpah that we saw in the 2023 production Actress, made by Bruce Dennill and Talia Kodesh and the kind of pizzazz that evokes the work of its director, Lara Toselli, who turned heads almost 10 years in her performance in Bad Jews, A Doll’s Life is an important work to grace South African stages.
A Doll’s Life: Confessions of a Quarter Life Crisis is written and performed by Micaela Jade Tucker and directed by Lara Toselli. Produced by Michaela Jade Tucker and Daphne Kuhn, it features artwork by Danidoodle and design by Gabrielle Alberts and is stage managed by Regina Dube assisted by Melidah Thakadu, with technical management by Loftus Mohale assisted by Reggie Mathebe. It is onstage at Theatre on the Square in Sandton until 29 March 2025.