“The Almighty Sometimes” is a play by Australian Kendall Feaver. It deals with the potent perennial issue of mental illness. It focusses on the transition of a psychiatric patient from childhood to adulthood and that individual’s responsibility in making choices with regard to their ongoing treatment, specifically their medication regime. The plays power and magnetism is generated directly from the script. The dialogue is direct, honest, sometimes funny but always within the reach of our knowledge and understanding. Director Rob Croser’s homage to this material results in a straight forward and most frugally effective production by Independent Theatre. The intimacy of this piece on an ideal performance space at Star Theatres is enhanced by David Roach’s and Croser’s simple flat set design with four points of entry/exit. Nothing detracts from our constant focus on the characters and their dialogue.
During childhood Anna has seemingly displayed, via her writings and an isolated instance of jumping from a window, some disturbing health aberrations. Her mother Renee has since then sought help for her daughter’s mental health and well being. Anna has been prescribed medication throughout much of her young life and her psychiatrist Vivienne has been her designated doctor all of that time. Anna has just turned eighteen, and has drawn the attention of a young man, Oliver. Now an adult, smart, intelligent and certainly able to voice her own opinion she wants to make decisions about her drug therapy and negotiate her own treatment pathways. Within this emotional flurry her relationships, familial, personal and professional, all hover on the brink of unravelling and falling apart.
The players have been astutely cast by Croser and he has at his disposal four theatre smart and evenly talented performers. And it shows! Their collective communication one with another on stage and therefore to the audience is splendid. Vocal delivery is well articulated by all, it is clear and crisp, even in the heightened shrill moments of emotion .
Timing is spot on from each of the players and the slight pauses between scenes allows just enough time to quickly digest one exchange and prepare for the next. The audience was pin drop attentive throughout. It was a remarkably smooth opening night for all concerned both on stage and off.
Naomi Voortman plays Vivienne, Anna’s childhood psychiatrist. She plays her with restrained professional ease giving nothing at all away about her own family circumstances. Her professional care for Anna is unquestioned and she goes as far as to seek a dispensation in order to carry on her treatment into adulthood if that is Anna’s wish. Vivienne is in many ways the grounding rock in this piece and Voortman’s performance simply reflects just that. She is steady, sound, reliable and entirely believable.
Oliver played by Jonathon Montgomery is Anna’s boyfriend. He is awkward and uncomfortable in finding that Anna’s mother is one of his former teachers. He is very receptive to Anna’s stories and is full of genuine praise for her odd creativity and brilliance. In her moments with him we can get a glimpse of her potential future maybe with Oliver or certainly with somebody like him. Montgomery delivers a most admirable performance especially in those initial scenes with Anna and her mother. His vocal delivery, his body language and his interaction to things happening around him on stage are all woven within his interpretation of character. That is very impressive. He possesses a natural stage presence that is quite remarkable given his limited stage experience. He has the hallmarks of a young man who is going places!
Lyn Wilson is at her acting best as Anna’s mother. She evokes our empathy and understanding for the unconditional love she has for her daughter. We detect her humanity and identify with her foibles and the justification she offers to explain her fierce protective instinct. Wilson’s performance is well practised, measured and assured. She fits her role like an old gardening glove. Her gradual letting go of Anna yet staying close by is handled with sublime subtlety.
Mia Livingstone-Pearce plays Anna. I have seen her before a couple of times and recall noting those performances. As Anna she is quite superb .Her occasional emotional and physical outbursts are presented with considered balance revealing pent up frustration as much as any mental health aberration. We see the potential for a successful and productive life. Her manic scene with her mother when she is revealing her last piece of (autobiographic) writing is a standout in showcasing her acting skill. Livingstone-Pearce is fully immersed in her her role and her consistent concentration is palpable. She made us believe that “Sometimes” would soon become “Rarely”. It was a bravura performance.
The final scene between mother and daughter in which, for the first time, trust and risk taking and honesty and real listening all come together, is a stunner! It is redolent of optimistic promise, ” So we hold our children’s hands and we Jump” as so quoted by an anonymous Mum in the programme. For a few seconds the audience remained silent, then came the applause. A sure fire sign that a connection, an understanding, a belief was shared.
