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by Steve Ross, directed by Sheila McCarthy

Here For Now Theatre Company, Here For Now Theatre, Stratford

July 31–August 12, 2026

Dennis: “You have to be kids for a while”

In his latest play Early Genius, Steve Ross presents us with a novel situation. A substitute teacher with an online teaching degree has to preside over a class of four children under 8 who all have IQs over 140 and are therefore officially geniuses. How Dennis, the ordinary- guy substitute teacher struggles to maintain authority over these young geniuses makes for an hilarious, surprisingly affecting play and yet another hit for Ross.

The first part of the play concerns Dennis’s getting to know his class. Practically everything he does is wrong. He begins by speaking to them as if they were normal kids in Grade 1, but they all speak like grown-ups and his method appears condescending. He tries relating to them by learning their likes. Beatrice likes books, so he says how much he likes Dean Koontz (a bestselling author of suspense fiction), whereas Beatrice says she is currently reading Kierkegaard. Percy likes musicals, so Dennis says he’s seen The Phantom of the Opera twice whereas Percy knows all the songs from every musical from the Golden Age of Broadway to the present. Anthony likes learning languages. Dennis knows some words in Spanish whereas Anthony has already learned four Romance languages.

Dennis struggles to maintain authority over a group of children who are all too ready to correct every mistake he makes in grammar, geography, statistics and popular culture. His status plummets when the children discover that he did not even graduate from an accredited university.

Yet Dennis realizes he does have at least two advantages over the children. He does have rules to enforce no matter what his degree and he has a much longer lived experience. All four of the children are made fun of by the students in “normal” classes at the school, but only Anthony is actually bullied. After Anthony suffers a particularly traumatic incident and Dennis recommends standing up to his tormentor, the class is surprised and proud.

When Percy, Dennis’s prime antagonist in the class refuses outright to obey an order from Dennis and Dennis sends him to the Principal’s office, the rest of the class (and Dennis) are impressed because Dennis has finally proved that he is not the wimp he seemed to be.

Dennis looks at his students and realizes that that what seems to be missing is play. “Don’t you ever act silly?” he asks them. He tries to impress on them that adulthood lasts a long time, but childhood is very short and it would be a shame never to experience it. The four, so used to impressing others with their knowledge and adult behaviour at first think his idea is nonsense. One of the joys of the play is seeing how Dennis gradually comes to appreciate his special changes and how they gradually come to appreciate him. Ross’s play is not entirely happy and an event forces everyone, Dennis and the children, to appreciate how short life really is.

The play is impeccably directed by Sheila McCarthy who has the four actors playing children speak with the similar off-hand forcefulness that bright children often use, and she draws out the strong differences among them. Aidan deSalaiz plays Percy, who at only seven is already out and proud and loves musicals even though he knows such an obsession is a stereotype. DeSalaiz shows that Percy is whimsical — a kangaroo one day, a clownish king the next — and quick-witted, especially when putting down Dennis. Quite the opposite is six-year-old Beatrice played by Madeline Elliott Kennedy. Beatrice always has her head in a book and Kennedy makes her seem bored by any topic that takes her away from what she is reading. Yet, Kennedy shows that Beatrice does have a sense of empathy that Percy almost deliberately seems to hide.

Andrew Perun well plays six-year-old Anthony, the only jock of the group, who finds that other jocks are unwilling to accept him because he is so intelligent. As the only one of the children actually bullied outside of class, he wins his classmates’ sympathy who follow his experiences as strange and frightening occurrences. As the first of the four children actually to break down and cry in front of the teacher and the others, Anthony is the first to display anything like natural, childlike behaviour.

Naomi Ngebulana gives a sensitive portrait of Harriet, who is put in with the other geniuses even though she is only five. Ngebulana plays her as the quietest and most meditative of the four. Early on we learn that Harriet had a heart transplant as an infant. Later in a passionate speech we earn how this fact has shaped her entire life much as she does not want to be defined by it and does not want special treatment.

Kevin Kruchkywich is very funny as the hapless substitute teacher Dennis. Dennis knows he is over his head with this group. He knows they loved their previous teacher so much that he can’t stop them from calling him “Miss” as they called her. Yet, Kruchkywich finely details Dennis’s awkward progression from being a klutz unable to find the right level to deal with this special group to being finally someone the group can bond with. It is a heartwarming moment when Dennis at last feels accepted.

This a fine play that starts out primarily as a comedy of humiliation but stealthily morphs into a more serious play about the value of childhood and the necessity of appreciating the gift of life. This is the fourth of Ross’s plays to premiere as Here For Now and each one has revealed a unique blending of humour and sensitivity. Early Genius has been extended and has immediately sold out. Let’s hope other theatres pick up this play as they have others by Ross. Meanwhile, those in Stratford will eagerly look forward to whatever Ross writes next.

Photos: Madeline Elliott Kennedy as Beatrice, Andrew Perun as Anthony, Kevin Kruchkywich as Dennis, Aidan deSalaiz as Percy and Naomi Ngebulana as Harriet; Madeline Elliott Kennedy as Beatrice, Aidan deSalaiz as Percy, Naomi Ngebulana as Harriet and Kevin Kruchkywich as Dennis; Madeline Elliott Kennedy as Beatrice, Kevin Kruchkywich as Dennis and Aidan deSalaiz as Percy; Andrew Perun as Anthony and Kevin Kruchkywich as Dennis. © 2026 Ann Baggley.

For tickets visit www.herefornowtheatre.com.