Kodachrome Review: Life is Rejection and Redirection

The intimate production captures the fickle nature of love.

In a remarkable start to the new year, the Middlesex theatre program presented the comedy-drama film Kodachrome in the black box theatre. Under the tutelage of Tom Kane and Ryan Dubray, this play is noted for its ability to fully allow its audience to immerse themselves within its composition. While it lacked a traditional plot line, Kodachrome was still incredibly captivating. 

The plot revolves around a deceased narrator, Suzanne (Stella Pham ‘28), as she utilizes her passion for photography to capture fragmented life experiences of various individuals in the small town of Colchester, Massachusetts. Suzanne believes her presence in interacting with the living world strengthens her connection to them, as she is unable to reconcile with her own untimely death. Kodachrome highlights some of the most poignant aspects of life, such as grief, death, regret, but most importantly, love. 

The vignettes Suzanne shows revolve around the making and breaking of romantic relationships. Through these events, Kodachrome portrays love as a fickle emotion. One perspective covers a perfumer’s fruitless attempt to attract a waitress with a custom scent. On the other hand, another involves the relationship between a newly engaged couple eroding due to the stress of marriage. 

The play also appeals to the sympathy of the audience. Elizabeth Welles ‘27, who played an unfulfilled waitress leading a dull and routine life, remarked that Kodachrome is full of characters whom “the audience can relate to.” While the artistic depth of Kodachrome is impressive, the general consensus from the audience was that the play was hard to follow. Many essential details about characters and their connections to each other were left out until fairly late into the play. This structure led to a lot of confusion throughout the performance. 

However, many people lauded the depth and precision with which the characters were developed. One example is a lonely and shy librarian who pines for her high school sweetheart, who is played by Kente Besmiire ‘28. While reflecting on her character arc in the play, Kente believes the librarian “represents regret, but also reconciliation.” Kente further mentions how the librarian spends decades agonizing over “what-ifs” and the alternate ways that she could live her life, and she ultimately is able to “make her fantasy a reality.” 

With particular salience, characters act out a scene silently as Suzanne narrates from the side. This highlights the emotions and thoughts of each of those characters in real time. Part of this was also due to the smaller setting of the play. Kente also noted that performing Kodachrome in a black box theatre created an “intimate experience” for the audience. “The subject matter allows the audience to feel as if they’re overhearing a conversation,” she explains, “in say, a cafe or a hardware store.” 

Rather than watching the play unfold in a generically detached format, Kodachrome included moments where Suzanne actively interacted with the audience. This further kept the interest of the audience members. Kodachrome was certainly a success for everyone in attendance, and we eagerly anticipate the theatre program’s next performance—One Acts—in February. 

Olivia Zhang ‘28