REVIEW: The Almighty Sometimes
For anyone who’s been touched by mental illness, no matter in what way, and that’s a lot of us, The Almighty Sometimes will sound like very familiar territory. Kind of like been there done that. Such is the accuracy of the depiction. It is a theatrical interpretation of the nightmare, dangerous and scary, that you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy.
Star of Puberty Blues, Black Mirror and Packed To The Rafters, Brenna Harding, plays teenage Anna, who as a seven year-old following a suicide attempt, after the death of her dad, is put on medication under the care of psychiatrist, Vivienne Lawson, played by multi Logie Award-winning actor Penny Cook from A Country Practice and Australian movie, Candy. She wrote prolific notebooks, there is the question, was she a child prodigy? But when it becomes harder to write she begins a type of personal experiment, going off her medication in an effort to try and regain her creativity.
The Almighty Sometimes is a new Australian work written by Kendall Feaver and directed by Helpmann Award-winning Lee Lewis, a brave and compassionate story, told with heartbreaking honesty. It is confronting and dialogue heavy, emotions are raw, there are real tears cried by Anna’s mum, Renee, (British actor Hannah Waterman) who’s a single mum and a teacher. She is all Anna has, she manages her daughter, suffocates her. It’s tragic how Anna loses everything along with her sanity, in the time in her life when she should be gaining independence and laying the foundations for the type of woman she will become. Her mother has become the ‘living archive of everything’ she’s experienced.
The set is minimalist, plain white walled, with nothing but a table and three white chairs. During the scenes when Anna becomes a raving lunatic, her mind intangible, scary, almost frothing at the mouth, she experiences feelings of grandeur, suicidal tendencies and pushes everyone away, she is like Geoffrey Rush in Australian movie Shine.
Until Sep 8. SBW Stables Theatre, 10 Nimrod St, Kings Cross. $38-$60+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.griffintheatre.com.au
Reviewed by Mel Somerville.
