A Lie of the Mind

The society had put together a strong cast for this demanding play which takes the audience through an episode in the lives of two dysfunctional families joined by marriage.

Beth is in hospital, unable to speak and suffering from a degree of brain damage following the latest and most vicious attack by husband Jake. An intensely jealous and obviously disturbed character, he is convinced his wife is having an affair.  The waif like Beth was beautifully portrayed by Anna Turnell, the physical evidence of her attack plain to see as she struggles to work her way through the mental confusion arising from the brain injury. Jake was intensely portrayed by Myles Lovell, tortured by the idea that he has killed his wife in this latest attack.

With both families caring for their respective offspring, we become drawn into the very different backgrounds of these two young people. Jake from California and Beth from Montana.  Jake’s overprotective mother, Lorraine, was very convincingly played by Charlotte Pritchard, as was his sister Sally by Jess Ricketts. There was an undetermined brittleness between the two characters initially, but a coming together towards the end. Despite his mother’s insistence that he stay in his room, Jake manages to get out of the house intent on finding Beth, be she dead or alive.

Completing this family is Jake’s brother Frankie, earnestly portrayed by Kristian Burnett. Concerned about his brother’s wife’s disappearance, Frankie sets out to try and find her with unexpected consequences, thanks to Beth’s gun toting father Baylor. Adam Thompson was terrific as this self-centred character, dismissive of everybody else’s problems, while continually making demands of his subservient wife. The role was dialogue heavy with a fair amount of humour, much to the delight of the audience.  Kate Harris was Baylor’s dutiful wife Meg, patiently waiting on her overbearing husband, with Dan Ricketts as her typical backwoodsman’s son Mike completing the line up. Two commendable performances.

This was a well directed production.  The acting throughout could not be faulted with all the actors being thoroughly immersed in their roles, as I have come to expect from this society.

The set was simple but effective with a bedroom in Lorraine’s home stage right, where she is keeping her son a virtual prisoner, and a hospital room stage left where Beth is recovering from her ordeal, later to become the living room in her parent’s home.

The lighting plot had been well devised and it was unfortunate that it went a bit awry at one point during the evening. These things happen of course and there is nothing worse than everything coming to a standstill, which did not happen here with the cast carrying on as though nothing had happened, which is as it should be.

The play left several unanswered questions.  Was this a clever ploy on the part of the writer, tasking the audience to fill in the gaps? In which case it certainly worked for these two theatregoers whose discussions are ongoing!  Audience numbers were down on this Saturday evening which was a pity. I can understand that the play may not have appealed to everyone but I’m so pleased I had the opportunity to go along.

Well done HTC on another excellent production and thank you to Director Kevin and Chairman David for taking the time to speak to me before curtain up.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.