It’s kids vs. the adult world in Ready Steady Yeti Go, a look at a bunch of middle-schoolers who meet in a ramshackle shed in the woods somewhere in the USA to give vent to their feelings and thoughts. Written by David Jacobi, directed by Guillermo Cienfuegos, the play is supported by the National New Play Network and is being seen at various other theaters around the country as part of NNPN’s “rolling world premiere program.” The play’s form is loose and open, basically a string of short scenes which jump around in time, popping on and off like firecrackers. Many of these scenes begin with the six kids shouting, “Ready steady yeti go!” as if at a pep rally. With no adults around to oversee their behavior, the kids know some rare moments of freedom. They joke, laugh, listen to music, poke fun at each other—and especially at their parents and teachers. Two of them, Goon (Ryan Brophy) and Carly (Jasmine St. Clair), also enter something akin to a love affair. That’s a bit of a shocker, if only because in the early scenes Goon comes across as an obnoxious bully. He’s also white and seemingly not inclined to harbor romantic thoughts about a black girl like Carly. Nor does she appear to have the slightest interest in him. Jacobi, though, has a few surprises in store for the audience. They are revealed when the play’s main theme begins to emerge: racism. Carly, we learn, lives with her family in a house that was targeted by vandals, who broke some windows and spray-painted “Nigger” on its front door. Her shock and rage intensified when she learned that the community, the adult world, was not going to do a damn thing about this disgusting act. There would be no police investigation, no protest by parents. It would be left to the kids to express moral outrage—and guess who led the outcry. That’s right, it was the bully Goon. Muscle-bound and thuggish as he was, he still had a human, caring side, one that had no use whatsoever for racism. The other surprises in Ready Steady also come out of character. Just when you’re just about ready to write these kids off, judge them for their crazy, self-absorbed, spoiled behavior, they show themselves to be more complicated than that, more admirable and brave and likable. I was happy to have spent an evening in their company—even though I did feel the play would have worked a lot better at sixty rather than ninety minutes.
