There is no hero or villain in Kendall Feaver’s The Almighty Sometimes; there are just humans trying and struggling to cope with the reality of a severe mental illness.
As a young child, Anna Phillips was an avid writer who filled countless notebooks with poetic and dark stories that centred on death and destruction of the body. Now she is eighteen years old and has been on strong combinations of antipsychotic medication for seven years. As any young woman on the knife-edge of adulthood, she wants to know who she is and in Anna’s case, without prescriptions and mood charts.
Lee Lewis has truly brought to life an incredibly raw and confronting experience that many of us will resonate with, and if not; empathise. The level of authenticity captured in the relationships on stage is so strong, and it is this that holds the audience in the throes of terror, anticipation and an acutely deep sadness as we feel and empathise with each character and their role in Anna’s life as well as how the illness has affected theirs. The relationship between Anna (Brenna Harding) and her mother Renee (Hannah Waterman) is heartbreakingly real and Harding and Waterman have delivered outstanding performances. Oliver (Shiv Palekar) Anna’s new boyfriend represents the love and admiration that is so deep but unlike that of a parent, is not unconditional. Again, though, he is not the villain and there is such exposition of Oliver’s own battles that we are inclined to empathise with his decisions rather than demonise them.
Penny Cook is equal parts stern and sensitive as Anna’s childhood psychiatrist Vivienne. She does a superb job of capturing the struggle between professionalism and the personal responsibility and affection she feels for her patient whilst always maintaining that “….it would be completely inappropriate for us to be friends”. There is not a single relationship onstage that isn’t deeply considered and beautifully, sensitively portrayed.
Dan Potra’s set design is incredibly powerful, representing the clinical world of preservation and desensitisation that has been Anna’s life for so long. The stark white is harsh on our eyes and Daniel Barber’s stunning lighting design does more than shape the transitions of the narrative; it over-stimulates us in a way that rings true to manic episodes experienced when living with a mental illness.
The Almighty Sometimes asks us to look at the grey areas in mental health; the spaces in between the diagnoses and treatment where the family, lovers, teachers and friends live alongside the individual who is made of so much more than the illness. It reminds us again and again that there is no victor and no failure; there is no hero and demon; there is just real people trying to cope.
The work is such an important one to experience
M. Osborn – Theatre Now
The Almighty Sometimes
Kendall Feaver
27 Jul – 8 Sep 2018
Monday – Friday 7pm
Saturday 2pm & 7pm
Wednesday 5 September 2pm & 7pm
Venue: Genesian Theatre Company
Theatre Company: Genesian Theatre Company
Duration: N/A
The Almighty Sometimes plays at Griffin (SBW Stables Theatre) until September 8.
