First, Do No Harm
Playwright: Grace Malouf
Directors: Charley Allanah, Grace Malouf
KXT, Broadway
24 June 24 – 4 July, 2026
First, Do No Harm confronts its audience with what for most would be an improbable human desire for drastic life-altering surgery. It asks who has the right to decide. While obliged only to dramatise a problematic situation and not provide an answer, playwright Grace Malouf perhaps directs the audience towards an answer which many might be reluctant to accept.
Alexei is a nineteen-year-old prospective Olympic swimmer who seems to be losing his competitive edge. His parents respond differently. His mother, Melissa Annous, a gastric sleeve surgeon and current contender for president of the AMA, sees his Olympic prospects as now unlikely, and his father, Robert Robertson, a former triple gold medallist, is looking for a return to form. Alexei is deeply troubled and has a secret he is unwilling to confide to either parent, although he thinks his mother would be more open to his decision.
Josh Merten as Alexei is convincing as a distressed young man set on pursuing a course of action he feels will bring him self-acceptance. As expected, when he finally tells his parents of his decision, his father is aggressively opposed to it and his mother bewildered but prepared to learn about possible treatment. The only issue for Alexei is finding a surgeon who will carry out the necessary surgery, and the man willing is his mother’s rival for the role of president, a further complication.
Malouf has clearly done her research. The audience is well-informed about the nature of Alexei’s condition and the debate that surrounds the effective treatment of it. These perspectives are presented through a psychiatrist, the head of a hospital Ethics Review Board, the consenting surgeon, Melissa and Alexei himself. Although the cause of his suffering is little understood, and it may yet prove to have psychological rather than neurological origins, does Alexei have the right to choose?
We all have opinions on the issue but is Alexei the only person with the right to choose this destiny? Should we be convinced because Josh Merten gives a powerful performance as Alexei; Kate Bookallil and Richard Hilliar are perfect as flawed parents; Shan-Ree Tan is convincing as the too-smooth surgeon, Dr Ian Marney; and Barry French is suitably pompous as the slightly sleazy Head of Ethics?
The staging effectively supports the play’s intentions. Holden Jane Cohle (production design), Theodore Carroll (lighting) and Ellie Wilson (sound) create stark settings emphasising the isolation experienced by Alexei and the coldness of his parental home. Darkness often suggests not only secretiveness, but also ignorance and the final crisis is visually horrific and intentionally confused. Uncomfortable sounds marking the opening and the close are unpleasantly memorable, relevant but possibly only confirming a sense of violation.
As Malouf’s First, Do No Harm demonstrates, theatre is a very good arena in which to raise questions, and we might ultimately ask to whom that command is directed.
