Live and in person at the Factory Studio Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Playing until March 16, 2025.
Written and performed by Kelly Clipperton
Directed by Naomi Campbell
Designed by Naomi Campbell and Kelly Clipperon
Musical direction and piano, Janet Whiteway
Lighting design by Christian Horoszczak
Choreography by Shane MacKinnon
Live sound design by Robin Easton
Set renderings by Ariel Clipperton
Band: Janet Whiteway
Tak Arikushi-Guitar
Oriana Barbato-Bass
Carrie Chestnutt-Sax and flute
Karl Anderson-drums
Don’t let the title fool you. Kelly Clipperton knows plenty about living in the world; coping with its bullies; finding his true self and celebrating it in irreverent humourand song; and bursting with the capacity to love and care especially for his father as he lived with dementia.
I can’t remember the last time the Factory Studio stage looked so stylish or the place so packed. Naomi Campbell and Kelly Clipperton have created a shiny set of the stage at the top and a runway flowing into the audience. Some audience sit at tables on either side of the runway.
Kelly Clipperton enters in a spotlight singing, dressed in a khaki army hat, khaki army shirt and a khaki skirt down to the group. Clipperton looks like a cross between a soldier and an Andrews Sister.
His style is cheeky, suggestive and full of double entendres. When you least expect it he talks about his father, who was a professional football player, later a geography high school teacher, and Kelly Clipperton’s constant champion.
Let’s Assume I Know Nothing and Move Forward From There tells the ‘typical’ story of a young boy who is gay, trying to fit in, being invisible, but being physically bullied on his way home from school. But of course, there is nothing typical about a kid being bullied because he is different. Each story is particular, individual, and just makes one suck air at the difficulty of a kid just trying to get through the day. Kelly Clipperton tells his story with humour and honesty. There is his cigarette-smoking grandmother who doesn’t seem sympathetic. There is the pack of bullies, unnamed but present as he tries to cross the bridge to get home, but having to endure the taunts and punched to do it—it always seems to be a pack of bullies that prey on one defenseless kid.
Kelly Clipperton grows up, thrives and succeeds working in a hair salon for black customer (Clipperton is not Black), then a model and then onward. At every job, he excelled. Nothing held him back. He sings about it in a strong baritone. He performs in a carefree, confident manner. But it’s his father who holds his heart. He references his father throughout the show as a person always on his mind—Clipperton took care of him during his father’s dementia. There is such tenderness in his recollections.
I saw this late in the short run. It closes today. It’s well worth a visit.
Performed at the Factory Studio Theatre
Plays until March 16, 2025.
Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission).
www.factorytheatre.ca