A violent and fatal terrorist explosion at the local community centre causes many casualties, both dead and injured with no one claiming responsibility.A woman caught between dreams and reality struggles to conform preferring to use violence and overt sexuality to make her point to the world.
Mary Mazzilli’s The Wrong Sleep refuses to sit on the fence, nor does it wait on the sidelines. The opening sequence is powerful and the audience are plunged head first into the action from the moment Janet (Antonella Axisa) enters the space. Mazzilli’s style of theatre is excellent for a discerning, inquisitive audience member who enjoys a challenge.
Review
Mary Mazzilli’s The Wrong Sleep refuses to sit on the fence, nor does it wait on the sidelines. A violent and fatal terrorist explosion at the local community centre causes many casualties, both dead and injured with no one claiming responsibility. A woman caught between dreams and reality struggles to conform preferring to use violence and overt sexuality to make her point to the world.
The opening sequence is powerful and the audience are plunged head first into the action from the moment Janet (Antonella Axisa) enters the space. She is nude and we watch her in rewind, layering her clothes on until she is swathed in full muslin dress with only her eyes showing. Janet has lost her way in the world. She is an eternal insomniac plagued by both her past and present. She uses violence to cleanse her of her demons, which in turns loads her with more.
A priest makes a moving but fairly stilted funeral speech, his horror and shock at the act of terrorism clear. Janet accosts him after the sermon to heap praise on his words. She meets the priest dressed only in her underwear. This clever surrealist technique, although fairly unrealistic ensures the audience feels the Priest’s discomfort at her overt sexuality. As the play continues it becomes apparent Janet has committed the heinous act.
A bed sits in the centre of the stage covered with two sleeping bags and with three plant pots at the head. We see Janet waking, sleeping, dreaming and it is never quite obvious in which state she is in. It is unclear and a little confusing why sleeping bags are required as opposed to ordinary bedlinen. She curses her lover or is it her child or children? This is inter-dispersed with meetings with the priest (Marc Forde) with whom she becomes increasingly sexual, making him more and more uncomfortable. Through this process it is never certain whether what is being watch is in dreamtime or reality. The Wrong Sleep tells a complex and powerful tale, one which we clamour for more information. This show definitely has the potential to be filled out a little with more content as the subject matter is compelling.
Janet’s obsession with using violence and sex to communicate her feelings to the world is handled beautifully by Axisa. She plays Janet with deep seated passion and her natural ability to convey this wild woman’s desire and violent outbursts of love is highly commendable. Her commitment to the character is more evident as each scene takes place. Mazzilli’s words coupled with Axisa’s delivery when talking about murdering her children is stomach turning, more because her torturous murders are laced with a sick kind of love. The three plant pots are used to great effect to represent the murdered boys. Janet’s love for her male children is eerily violent and Mazzilli conveys this with great skill with Janet saying ‘I did bend your knees gently, I did truss your ankles softly and I will be watering you forever’. Axisa manage to convey Janet’s split personality in a snappy, clear way leaving the audience both sympathetic and simultaneously angry at this woman who seems both lovely and hideous at the same time.
Marc Forde is convincing as the befuddled Priest. His deep seated compassion to help Janet coupled with the contempt he feels about the horrific acts she has committed is very well balanced and comes to a satisfying climax. Mazzilli’s writing is poetic, strange and enlightening. The language very much in the style of Martin Crimp, giving the audience the reins in determining what is happening to the characters. Mazzilli’s style of theatre is excellent for a discerning, inquisitive audience member who enjoys a challenge. There is definite potential for this show to succeed in a longer run.
