When Anna (Norah Lopez Holden) was seven she bequeathed her toys to her friends and threw herself out of a window. She survived, but her mother, Renee (Julie Hesmondhalgh), was so disturbed by the stories her precocious daughter was writing that she took her to see a child psychiatrist, Vivienne (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). She prescribed a cocktail of drugs.
Now Anna is no longer a child, and is starting a relationship with Oliver (Mike Noble) and wondering what she would be like if she stopped taking the medication. “I’ve been on those pills so long, I don’t know who I am without them.” Anna’s mother, who has spent years keeping her daughter safe, is appalled; her daughter determined. But can Anna ever get back to being the bright, sparky child she once was? Have the drugs altered her brain? Might she have been sad about her dad’s death? Or has she always been a danger to herself?
Kendall Feaver’s debut play could easily have been just an issue drama, pointing to the rise of mental health problems among young people and highlighting the way we treat them. It is that, but it is so much more, too: a funny, heartbreaking, acutely alive play boasting vividly drawn characters. It has a sneaky ability to make the audience keep shifting sympathies.
The cast are superb and totally invested. Katy Rudd’s production keeps things motoring, and one striking, terrifying scene makes us feel what it is like to be imprisoned in the maze of bright lights and electrical short circuits inside Anna’s head.
- At the Royal Exchange, Manchester, until 24 February. Box office: 0161-833 9833.
