The Play: The Almighty Sometimes by Kendall Feaver
The Company: Melbourne Theatre Company
The Theatre: Southbank Theatre, Southbank
Stars: 4
I have two takeaways from tonight's performance of The Almighty Sometimes by Kendall Feaver. The first is that mental illness is tedious. The second is that the humble choctop has become the new cigarette. I'll get to that later.
The play tells the story of Anna (Max McKenna) and eighteen-year-old girl in a state of flux. Her psychiatrist Vivienne (Louisa Mignone) is about to pass her to an adult's shrink, she's on the brink of a new relationship with Oliver (Karl Richmond) and her Mum, Renee (Nadine Garner) is trying to hold everything together. She's been on this journey with Anna for a number of years, she's seen it all. Anna's mental illness has been her focus for too many years.
And then Anna decides to go off her meds.
I have to compartmentalise this play to review it. I'm not sure I liked it, but I did appreciate it.
On the good side of things, the performances are all very good, particularly Max McKenna, our hapless, unmedicated bi-polar post adolescent, who just wants to feel like herself. Their performance is excellent as Anna cycles through the complex emotions brought on by the disease. Her mother and Oliver can only watch by the sidelines and provide support where they can.
I loved the set, which was made on a rotating frame, on which the cupboards and walls of the family home. It was like the fifth character in the play.
Hannah Goodwin's direction is on point and the action flows well. According to the programme, there are a number of movement and intimacy co-ordinators who have helped shape the play as well.
But Kendall Feaver's play is wordy. Wordy, and at time, just a little same same and Anna and her mother try to get her back on track, with little success. When it comes down to it, mental illness is as tiring as it can be tedious, which anybody who's had a friend or loved one suffer, will know. I will admit to falling asleep for a few minutes in the first act. I fared better in the second, where the action was more enlivening. It was that or the choc top's sugar rush that kept me awake.
Which brings me back to my earlier comment of choctops being the new cigarette. The Southbank theatre's ruling is no food or hot drinks in the auditorium. I was late at interval getting my choctop - a marvelous caramel one, which I had but only a few minutes to eat before returning to my seat.
Me along with about seven others stood at the door like old smokers, bolting our ice creams. There was a sense of solidarity among us. As somebody finished and went inside, we cheered. The usher smiled at us. We were playing by the rules (makes a change from her telling people to finish off their ice cream or throw it in the bin. I have to say, it was a bloody good choc top.
As for the play, yes, it's good. There are all sorts of good things about the play, but when it comes down to it, mental illness is not the most uplifting of subjects, hence my wavering enthusiasm in this review. Mental illness is hard at the best of times. Depending on your experiences, you may love or hate this play. The depictions of mental illness and its consequences rang true. I'm just not sure it makes for an overly entertaining night out.
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