Review: BANTER JAR by Hannah Baker at The Lion and Unicorn Theatre 10 - 14 May 2022

‘A relatable, moving and heart-warming experience’ ★★★★

Written and performed by Hannah Baker, ‘Banter Jar’ is a one woman show portraying a young teenage girl’s experiences. Performed during Mental Health Awareness Week, the play is a relevant symbol which perfectly illustrates the struggles and confusions many young people experience growing up.

We are pulled into Hannah’s world - a chaotic and youthful world of freedom, parties, sex and love, all experienced for the first time. Hannah playfully prances around the stage imaginatively presenting her life - she busks outside Poundland and shares intimate encounters with her boyfriend. Backed up by live music and fun lighting changes, these vivid snapshots - from home, to bus, to club - continually engage the audience and reveal her youthful exuberance.

Hannah’s performance perfectly encapsulates a young, excited, inexperienced teenage girl. Wide-eyed, childish and curious, she is captivating and fun to watch. At times, her overly energetic and naive behaviour is full on. But her character is balanced with kindness and goodwill, making her likeable. She lacks judgement in her relationships: she is the friend who wants to support, care for and importantly, make people around her laugh and smile.

Hannah has an awareness of the dark, deep rooted and unfixable feelings people experience. She desperately wants to help the people she cares about. However, she doesn’t have the answers. When confronted with her boyfriend’s suicidal thoughts she can only suggest the next best thing to make him feel happy: ‘Making pancakes at three am’.

The play explores themes of mental health, and the script provides an awareness for universal struggles without pressing for fixable answers. Conversations regarding self-harm are casually discussed and Hannah can’t seem to understand why her best friend, ‘a goddess’ in her eyes, struggles so much with her self-image. She supports her boyfriend with his bipolar episodes and takes responsibility for his mental state. These themes are thoughtfully played out and despite her inexperience, Hannah questions the meaning of happiness and offers poignant and touching observations: ‘Why is it always the kindest people who are the saddest?’.

Baker’s show is above all universally relatable to many young people leaving school and entering adulthood. Although Hannah portrays her life with excitement, the transition from old life to university suggests a loss of the familiar.

Hannah provokes the audience into understanding just how common and pressing mental health issues are amongst young adolescents entering adulthood. Like Hannah, we come away questioning the meaning of happiness, and perhaps, questioning our own state of contentment.

Lion and Unicorn Theatre

10 - 14 May

Creative Team:

Written & performed by Hannah Baker

Directed by Chris Larner

Technician & lighting design Ben Reid

Twitter: @bakerr_hannah

Reviewed by Amelia Barnie

Amelia Barnie is an English graduate from Goldsmiths, University of London. She currently works as a publishing assistant and has a passion for scriptwriting, theatre and film. She enjoys writing plays and poetry and regularly participates in writing workshops including The National Theatre’s playwriting course led by Chris Bush (2021).