With honesty, heart and humour, Kay Proudlove chats (and sings) about the pressures of growing up a woman in her theatre show, Dear Diary. As she finds her diary while clearing out her old bedroom, Kay opens the audience to the teenage world of boys, boobs and body image.
Crude opening jokes about not having ‘any boobies yet’ fall a little flat as Kay finds her feet on stage – although, to be fair, they’re the sort of thing 12-year-olds probably would write about in their diaries.
As the show progresses, Kay takes on a more mature, vulnerable humour that makes her recollections of first kisses and friendship fallouts hit closer to home. As she sings her never-posted love letter to Elijah Wood, accompanied by off-putting slideshow photos of the actor, the audience chuckles, recalling that illusioned teenage wish to be ‘not like other girls’.
Kay’s soulful acoustic guitar and singing add an indie-esque melancholy to the affair, which she balances by cutting herself off mid-song with chaotic quips from time to time. The effect is a whirlwind exploration of girlhood that playfully examines our past hopes and insecurities, and how they serve us (or don’t) in the present.
While the ideas presented are nothing new, they are ever important and a comfort to revisit through Kay’s self-deprecating yet heartfelt performance. Dear Diary warms into a charming play that encourages women to join in shedding the layers and embrace themselves as they are.
Dear Diary, Holden Street Theatres, until 9 March