Kimberly Akimbo

Kimberly Akimbo is a play written in 2000 by Pulitzer prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire. Its title character is a lonely teenage girl suffering from a disease a lot like progeria, that causes her to age 4 and a half times as fast as normal. Thus, Kimberly is trapped inside the frail physical body of an elderly woman. She meets another misfit (a teenage boy) and the two form an attachment to one another that borders on attraction. The situation is not helped by Kimberly's rapidly deteriorating health. Soon Kimberly's family gets mixed up in some crazy money schemes, and the family gets emotionally destroyed.

Plot

Act 1

The lights go up on Kimberly sitting and waiting for her father, who was late picking her up drinking. He compensates by agreeing to take her to a burger joint for some food, where they meet Jeff, the nerdy kid behind the window asking if Kim could do an interview for his project. Buddy strongly refuses and drives away. The scene changes to Pattie, Kimberly's mom, talking to a sound recorder to her unborn child about her life and how she believes she's a 'good mother'. Later on, Kimberly calls Jeff and agrees to meet at the library later for the interview, as he is learning about progeria.

Characters

• Kimberly, a teenage girl with an aging disease who struggles to find happiness in such a chaotic family with nobody who understands her
• Buddy, her father, an alcoholic (then not alcoholic midway through the show) who only wants best for Kim
• Jeff, a nerdy boy who is basically Kimberly's love interest, who is neglected by his father at home
• Pattie, Kimberly's mother who thinks she is dying and is preganant with her second child
• Debra, Pattie's sister who causes the family some problems and lives with them on and off