Review: My Brother’s A Genius, National Youth Theatre

Daisy and Luke are twins. They live in a high-rise estate, joined at the hip and the same in every way, joyfully swinging their way through life towards the same dream: to be able to fly. And fly they do, in their own distinct ways. 

My Brother’s a Genius by Debris Stevenson opens with the twins in perfect sync, lyrics and movement flowing together in each other’s mirror image. We meet them at age eleven, when they are being sent to different schools: Luke to a “genius” school and Daisy to a “stupid” school, as she puts it. Her experience at secondary school gets off to a stressful start after she gets lost on the Tube, while her genius brother thrives in a way she never could. As we follow their journey, their bond cracks and twists, revealing different sides of neurodivergence. Daisy is allocated a teaching assistant, her parents are called into school to deal with her behaviour, and she is eventually offered medication to calm her. Luke appears to thrive, but behind it all, he is struggling in his own way. What unfolds is not a simple contrast of success and failure, but a more complicated unravelling of how systems reward certain kinds of minds while quietly suffocating others.

Performers Jess Senanayake and Tyrese Walters play the siblings with blistering energy. Senanayake delivers her lines with speed, dexterity and rhythmic brilliance, her performance teetering on the edge of chaos, mirroring the moments where she and Walters stand on the roof of their building. Walters is charming and vulnerable as Luke, displaying impressive physicality through his role, particularly in the moments where his composure begins to fracture. Together, they maintain a palpable connection even as the characters drift apart, their shared rhythms slipping in and out sync in ways that feel both subtle and devastating.

The set uses modular boxes effectively, shifting them to form different scenes, while a partial climbing frame and swing set make a striking centre piece, echoing both childhood play and the precarious balancing act of growing up. The original grime-infused sound, created in collaboration with MC and producer Jammz, vibrates through the audience, drawing them in and rooting the piece in rhythm, movement and lived experience. It doesn’t just underscore the action but pulses through it, shaping the tempo of the performances and reinforcing the emotional beats of the story. At times it feels almost intrusive, a reminder of the constant noise these characters are navigating, both internally and externally. 

My Brother’s a Genius is an electrifying two-hander that immerses the audience in the siblings’ world through a mix of poetry and grime, capturing the intensity of their experiences. But beyond its stylistic flair, it is a piece that interrogates how we define intelligence, how quickly we label, and how damaging those labels can become when they calcify into expectation. It asks who gets to be seen as exceptional, and at what cost.

Creator & Writer: Debris Stevenson
Director: Eleanor Manners
Designer: Erin C Guan
Sound Designer & Composer: Jammz
Lighting Designer: Jess Brigham
Movement Associate: Emily Corless
A co-production with Sheffield Theatres, Theatre Centre

My Brother’s a Genius runs at the National Youth Theatre until Saturday 21 March.