With How My Light Is Spent at KXT on Broadway, production company Secret House have once again shown Sydney audiences that they are masters of low-key staging with maximum theatrical impact.
Once again, they have chosen a play by the multi-award winning Welsh playwright, Alan Harris, re-imagined the production and produced a tight 65 minute show that is a roller coaster as it travels across a wide range of emotions.
The play’s anti-hero, 34-year-old Jimmy (James Smithers), works in the Welsh town of Newport’s only drive-through doughnut restaurant, while living at home. Every week he looks forward to calling Kitty (Jane Angharad), a phone sex worker, calls that last exactly nine minutes and are billed at the rate of £1.20 per minute.
He can only make these calls while his mother (Renée Billing) is at worship meetings with her Salvation Army colleagues. Kitty, who lives in a granny flat, has ambitions beyond being a phone sex worker, hoping to save up enough to take a course in psychology, and move on.
With Jimmy making regular calls, they are both keenly tuned to the sound of each other’s voices, and over months the tone becomes warm and gentle. Then, without notice, Jimmy is made redundant, replaced by a coin bin.
When he wakes up the next morning he finds that his hands have disappeared. Over time other parts of his body disappear, until only a toe is visible, and he now resembles Claude Rains in the 1933 film The Invisible Man.
Can he save himself, his relationship with Kitty, and also save Kitty from working for Stevo (Pita Lolohea) as a high-end escort? Also, his daughter Mallary (Kira McLennan), who he has not seen for four years, keeps appearing in his consciousness.
Set in the pre-mobile era, How My Light Is Spent, is an early look at how human contact is being disenfranchised by the impact of technology. It also delves deeply into the loneliness that this entails, the rapid changes in society and family, and how this envelopes all of us.
Jimmy’s humanity is tested further when he is forced to apply to the local job centre, an experience that alienates him further. How My Light Is Spent, however, does offer rays of hope towards the end, but whether they are enough for Jimmy is questionable.
This production is usually performed by two actors, who break character to become narrators and other characters, such as the job centre clerk or a low level pimp, but here, director Braiden Toko has chosen five well matched actors who flesh out the play brilliantly.
Toko has also chosen to have the actors perform in isolation, each choosing one of two lit rostrums and mirrors to perform to. Smithers, as Jimmy, is one of the two central characters and brings a lot of charisma to the role, while doubling as set designer.
The other main character belongs to Angharad, who fills the role of Kitty with empathy while delivering a solid performance. Billings has a range of Welsh accents that never falter across their various roles that include the mother, and she is truly frightening as the job centre clerk.
Cast mainly as a roving narrator, Lolohea is commanding, while McLennan’s Mallary can go from anger to pathos on a dime, and always has your attention. The production overall is fast paced with sharp dialogue that gives levity and humid to the subject matter. There is no dialogue coach credited, but all actors deliver credible versions of a very difficult accent.
Clare Sheridan’s mainly simple white lighting is particularly impactful when the perspex topped rostrums are used to full effect, while composer and sound designer (Anthony MacDermott) has taken a similarly minimal approach.
Secret House obviously have an affinity with Harris’ work, as this is their second production of his that they have staged, having previously performed For the Grace of You Go I at KXT in 2022.
How My Light Is Spent
KXT on Broadway, 181 Broadway, Ultimo
Performance: Wednesday 16 September 2026
Season continues to 26 September 2026
Information and Bookings: www.kingsxtheatre.com
Images: James Smithers in How My Light Is Spent – photo by Robert Catto | Jane Angharad in How My Light Is Spent – photo by Robert Catto | Pita Lolohea in How My Light Is Spent – photo by Robert Catto | Jane Angharad, Renée Billing, Kira McLennan and Pita Lolohea in How My Light Is Spent – photo by Robert Catto | Kira McLennan and James Smithers in How My Light Is Spent – photo by Robert Catto
Review: John Moyle