Black Swan State Theatre Company’s WA premiere of The Almighty Sometimes, written by acclaimed Australian playwright Kendall Feaver and directed by Emily McLean, is a poignant and thought-provoking exploration of mental health, self-discovery and maternal love.
The contemporary drama follows Anna (performed by ‘Ana Ika), a bright, fiercely intelligent and extremely talkative eighteen-year-old as she searches for her place in the world. Having spent the past seven years taking medication for a mysterious, all-consuming “illness” Anna begins to question both her diagnosis and treatment. She’s an aspiring writer with a vivid imagination and recalls writing extraordinary stories as a child, but believes that since beginning medication, her thoughts and imagination have dulled.
Now she’s legally an adult, she starts questioning the efficacy of her treatment and diagnosis, determined to regain agency over her life. She confronts her psychiatrist Vivienne (Amy Mathews) and threatens to stop taking the medications, insisting that the medication has altered her brain and diminished her creative abilities. Convinced that she may have become a literary child prodigy had she never taken the pills, Anna grapples with the possibility that the treatment intended to help her may also have taken something from her.
The play raises interesting questions about creativity, mental health and the enduring myth of the tortured artist, such as can great art exist without suffering? For example, after watching the play and doing some research myself, I discovered a psychological term called the Sylvia Plath Effect which describes the correlation between highly imaginative writers, often female writers, and mental health disorders such as bipolar disorder and depression. While this is one theory, it also contributes to problematic narratives around romanticising suffering, rather than recognising the artists’ intellect and discipline on their own terms.
The Almighty Sometimes. Photo credit: Daniel J Grant
Motherhood is another powerful theme explored in the play and Alison Van Reeken is brilliant as Anna’s mother Renee. A devoted single mother, Renee has spent her life caring for and protecting her daughter. As Anna asserts her independence with her boyfriend Oliver (Harry Gilchrist), she’s forced to confront the reality that her daughter is now an adult, capable of making decisions that Renee cannot prevent, no matter how dangerous they are. The play poignantly captures the painful transition from caregiver to bystander, exposing the helplessness that can accompany unconditional love. This tension is depicted in a powerful scene between Renee and Anna’s psychiatrist Vivienne, with Van Reeken and Amy Mathews delivering exceptional performances. When Vivienne suggests Renee picks up a hobby and focus on her own life, Renee bursts out laughing. The thought seems absurd to Renee and is a humorous yet heartbreaking moment.
‘Ana Ika delivers a wonderful performance as Anna, skilfully navigating a wide range of emotions and psychological states, shifting between mania, depression, anxiety and anger in a way that feels both raw and embodied. Harry Gilchrist plays Oliver, Anna’s new boyfriend, who’s quietly battling his own troubles. Like Renee, he’s spent his life caring for his disabled father and his relationship with Anna becomes both a refuge and a form of emotional escape from that responsibility.
The Almighty Sometimes. Photo credit: Daniel J Grant
Presented in the intimate space at Subiaco Arts Centre, the production’s design by Fiona Bruce uses a minimal arrangement of blue stage blocks abstractly configured to suggest a kitchen, bedroom or medical environment. This ambiguity reflects the instability of Anna’s world, where the domestic and clinical spaces blur. In an intense, climatic moment at the end of Act 1, the set begins to rotate, heightening the sense of distress and drawing the audience into Anna’s loss of control.
The Almighty Sometimes is a deeply affecting and layered production that interrogates the fragile boundaries between mental health, identity and creative expression, while sensitively portraying the emotional complexities of motherhood and the unbreakable bond between mother and daughter.
The Almighty Sometimes presented by Black Swan State Theatre Company is on at Subiaco Arts Centre from June 19-July 5.