Hi My Name Is… Review

“I’m so tired of looking for myself in this mess of myself.”

Katherine Alice White’s one-woman show Hi My Name Is… takes a unique framework for looking at the conflict we all feel between different parts of ourselves. Fed up with one another, Katy, the more fun loving and childish side, and Katherine, the more serious and organized side, have reached an agreement. They are each going to present their case why they should be the one to stay in charge of their life, their body. An audience of strangers will vote and the loser is bound by contract to leave. Forever.

The stakes feel real and White touches on heavy, unpleasant memories and genuine emotional turmoil in these testimonies. But the script is well balanced; while it hits at some emotional moments, White’s comedic story telling ability also shines through. As performer, she lands the humor and the struggles brilliantly. Her energy and the writing keep the pace driving, the show never drags.

It would be easy for a show like this to become hard to follow, so it’s a testimony to White and director Alicia Lion Januzzi’s skills that was never the case with Hi My Name Is… at all. While there’s the since that White is more comfortable with Katy (we spend a lot of time with her driving the show), she has made Katy and Katherine clear and distinct characters.

Ultimately, this show, beyond being an entertaining one act, is a testament to embracing all of the messy and contradictory parts of ourselves. Each serves its purpose, even when they’re hard to reconcile. Katy and Katherine each struggle with wanting to be someone different, someone else. They each hate having to deal with this other side of themselves. There’s hardly a person alive who hasn’t struggled with something similar. White has shown it skillfully and with a flair for humor to help us embrace the complex contradictions of just being a human being.