THEATRE
Written by Kendall Feavers, Melbourne Theatre Company
At Southbank Theatre, The Sumner, until 18 May 2024
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: 4
This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 20 April 2024. KH
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| Max Mckenna, Nadine Garner and Karl Richmond - image Pia Johnson |
For some people, the warts-and-all exposure of mental illness in The Almighty Sometimes by Kendall Feaver, may hit too close to the bone.
The play, directly deftly by Hannah Goodwin, explores the struggle between a mother, Renee (Nadine Garner), and her 18-year-old daughter, Anna (Max McKenna) as Anna wrestles with her mental condition that swings between mania and depression. (It appears to be B polar Disorder.)
Anna has been on powerful anti-psychotics and other mediation since she was 11 years when Renee took her to a child psychiatrist (Louisa Mignone) because of her increasingly disturbed, albeit creative and advanced writing, her erratic behaviour and apparent suicidal thoughts. 18-year-old Anna finds her 8-eyear-old self’s unsettling stories and decides to rediscover her searing creativity.
The stage become dangerous for Anna and Renee, as well as Anna’s mild-mannered, unwitting boyfriend, Oliver (Karl Richmond), when Anna decides to assert her newly acquired adulthood and independence by secretly and unsupervised, stopping her medication cold turkey. The result is a catastrophic deterioration in her mental condition.
McKenna is compelling as the volatile and mercurial Anna, as she trawls the depths of this character’s disturbing actions and her disturbed mind, finding her strength, imagination and vulnerability. Garner is sympathetic and fragile as the beleaguered, desperate Renee who fiercely protects her daughter while feeling guilty for subjecting her to such potent drugs and therapy at such as early age.
Jacob Battista’s set design is a constantly moving jigsaw of panels and cupboards that swivel and swing around the characters when Anna’s psyche is most unhinged.
The Almighty Sometimes is a challenging but dramatically satisfying production that deliver a complex mother-daughter relationship as well as a voyeuristic look into the tragic life of a young woman with a serious mental illness.
by Kate Herbert
CAST & CREATIVES
The
Almighty Sometimes
By Kendall Feaver
Cast Nadine Garner, Max McKenna, Louisa Mignone, Karl Richmond Director
Hannah Goodwin
Set & Costume Designer Jacob Battista
Lighting Designer Amelia Lever-Davidson
Composer & Sound Designer Kelly Ryall
Voice & Text Coach Matt Furlani
Fight Choreographer & Movement Consultant Lyndall Grant Intimacy
Coordinator Bayley Turner
Assistant Director Jennifer Sarah Dean
TICKETING INFORMATION
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