Going To See The Kid Analysis

I recently a three person play called “Going To See The Kid” at Merrimack Repertory

Theatre in Lowell, Massachusetts. It’s a new play that follows two colleagued names Ellis, and

Simon who work at The Boston Herald. They are surprisingly different from what you expect.

Their assignment is that they are going on a trip from Boston to Florida to interview Ted

Williams. Going on their journey they learn the good lessons of empathy and teamwork.

The story starts off as Ellis is talking to the audience, a fourth wall break goes well she

said “that every story needs an angle” and it is about what angle she wants to tell about Red Sox

legend Ted Williams. Because she cannot decide what it should be. The setting is back in the
Fall

of 2001 and Christmas of 2002. That’s where we meet our two reporters from The Boston Globe

Ellis who is a rookie and trying to do improve from a question and answer reporter to a full time

staff to help her father with his health insurance.
And then there is Simon who is a lifestyle writer

who doing a big piece on Ted Williams a legendary Red Sox player who was amazing on the

field and up to bat. But unfortunately Ted’s personality and reputation off the field ruin his

relationship to local media and committee. So they get a joint assignment to visit him in Florida.

Ellis is too obsess with Ted’s stats she memorized them like the alphabet. For this long drive

1500’s mile Ellis invited her husband David to go on the trip with them to Florida. These two

reports argued a lot. Simon really did not care much for baseball in general. Finally after four overnight stops, Simon car died in Florida. And they finally meet Ted Williams who is in a

wheelchair who is uncooperative, and crotchety. After all of that and not receiving anything

about their newfound cooperation between them. The trio go to New York and even though they

did not get what they were sent to do it only made the relationship better between them.

My thought about the characters of this play I really liked all the main characters. The

actress Veronika Duerr was phenomenal as the portrayal of Ellis. She spoke a perfect
Boston

accent and articulation you could understand all the words she was saying. She was very reliable,

kind of spunky, and she was one of those people who are an ultimate Boston Red Soxs fan. I’m

kinda like her in that sense. Knowing the stats of her team inside and out. I feel like Duerr

character Ellis evolved as the play went on. She was not your run in the mill type of journalist

she knew a lot about baseball, very educated, and she was trying to change for the better. The

actor Joel Colodner played multiple characters in this play. By far his best one was Simon the

other colleague from The Boston Herald. Simon is older and more wise because he has been

doing it for longer. But Simon was a good mentor for Ellis even though they disagreed a lot. He

subdued his excitement and love for the Red Sox was more of internal then his colleague Ellis.

The last actor for this piece was John Gregorio who also played multiple characters in this play

as well. All of John Gregorio characters were unique in their own way, with them having their

own accents, and they had their own mannerisms. Gregorio played David and he spoke more

refined. His other roles did not separate him being loving and supportive.

Even though the play Going To See The Kid was an awesome there was a few writing errors and mistakes. You could tell that there was uneven writing between some scenes which I

feel personally was a drawback for the play. A few moment in this play were flat but others were

not. But there is one moment in this play that came out of left field. When Ellis and Simon met

Ted Williams he was swearing but they blocked it out with air horns. And then translating by

changing the language to Shakespeare. Which I felt it did not help the play at all. The last

mistake for this was adding an last minute revelation about Simon. Which did not really impact

the story at all. But majority of the play was fine. It flowed well between the scenes. I liked how

they change the LED lights colors change for each scene, or had them off. Also the hiding of the

set I liked for some scenes. The set practically stayed the same for the most of play. Like the

major pieces stayed the same but the location change quite a few times. They were at a bar,

hospital, hotel lobby, and etc. My favorite moment of this play was when they were in the car

and if you are Boston Red Sox fan they impliedly know the Fenway anthem “Sweet Caroline” .

The last scene making it snow shows the holiday aspect of this play helps it in the long run.

In conclusion for this play there was a few questionable calls I would say with minors

error’s that it was not a perfect play. But it was still awesome even though there was some

writing errors. Some of the direction of this play is questionable. But other than that majority of

this play I feel worked well. The frequent fourth wall breaks helped kept the audience engage.

The set, lighting, music, and acting was amazing.the two actors and the one actress made this

play Going To See The Kid a family friendly holiday play about the Red Sox.It also help by pick

this play up from the few writing mistakes it had. As well as a scene that did not belong it this play. Also it had a powerful message of even though the characters Ellis and Simon were

different and argue all the time. It has the message of hopefulness and the power of teamwork is

what can bring us together. I really enjoyed this play it.