★★★★☆
When it comes to mental illness, does creativity belong to the illness, the medication, or the person themselves? Black Swan State Theatre Company’s production of The Almighty Sometimes tackles this question head-on in a gripping and emotionally charged drama.
Eighteen-year-old Anna is an aspiring writer who has been on psychiatric medication for seven years. With the support of a loving mother and a dedicated psychiatrist, she is stable and about to embark on her life as an adult.
After finding a collection of her childhood notebooks full of wildly imaginative, dark, twisted stories written before she began taking medication, she questions whether her meds have blunted her creativity and decides to go off them.
The Almighty Sometimes, written by Kendall Feaver, is a clever, insightful script that explores the tension between Anna’s desire for agency and self-expression versus her mother’s desperate need to keep her daughter safe.
As the story unfolds, audience sympathies swing from Anna, who questions her diagnosis (the play suggests her father died before her first episodes; could grief and trauma have been a factor?), to her mother Renée, who, like any mother in the same situation, just wants to protect her daughter from herself and maintain equilibrium.
‘Ana Ika gives a strong performance as Anna, beautifully portraying her youthful optimism and confidence, which provides a heartbreaking counterpoint to her descent into illness.
She sparks well off Alison van Reeken, as her mother Renée, who deftly captures all the nuance and complexity of a mother’s fear, from anger and frustration at Anna’s risky choices, to deep love and anguish at her daughter’s deterioration.
Harry Gilchrist plays Anna’s first boyfriend, Oliver, who has some difficult family issues of his own to contend with. He performs with heartbreaking vulnerability as he witnesses Anna’s descent.
His character speaks to the complexity of a community response to mental illness. Oliver is torn between his love for Anna, his need for self-protection, and his shock and anger at Anna’s behaviour and the actions Renée must take to save her daughter.
Amy Mathews is also strong as Vivienne, Anna’s psychiatrist, a skilled professional who nevertheless demonstrates her own moral ambiguity. We learn that she has published a book of case studies, which includes Anna’s creative writing and accounts of her illness, without having asked for her permission.
There is a potent scene where she argues with Renée about the fact that Anna is now an adult and entitled to autonomy in her decision-making. The two actresses skilfully navigate the competing demands of their characters’ viewpoints while the audience walks a knife-edge as we grapple with our own response to an impossibly difficult situation.
Emily McLean’s direction is sensitive and assured, allowing the play’s shifting perspectives to land without ever forcing judgment. She keeps the production finely balanced between naturalism and imagination, so that Anna’s inner world and the clinical realities around her sit in constant, uneasy proximity. She draws nuanced, grounded performances from the ensemble that hold the production’s moral complexity in steady tension.
Respect must go to set designer Fiona Bruce, whose blue, ordered set provides a striking counterpoint to the wild, layered video design by Mia Holton, projected onto a side wall.
The projection suggests the beautiful chaos of Anna’s imagination and creativity, while also hinting at the darker undertones of her illness, whereas the physical set remains aligned with Renée’s need for order and sanctuary.
Feaver says she began writing The Almighty Sometimes when she was only a few years older than Anna. This is her debut script, which has won multiple awards and is a remarkable achievement. She skilfully weaves a complex story, giving all characters weight and validity as they attempt to navigate an impossibly difficult dilemma.
The best kind of theatre explores the vulnerable grey areas of human experience: moral ambiguity, uncertainty, and not knowing. The Almighty Sometimes is one of those plays. It asks difficult questions without offering easy answers, and in doing so, becomes a powerful story that handles a complex issue with sensitivity and nuance.
With youth mental health diagnoses reaching alarming levels in Australia, it feels particularly relevant to the age we live in, and lingers precisely because it refuses to resolve what cannot be easily resolved.
The Almighty Sometimes is presented by Black Swan State Theatre Company and runs to 5 July at Subiaco Arts Centre.
Tickets are available here.
Website: https://blackswantheatre.com.au/season-2026/the-almighty-sometimes
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/blackswanstc/
Photo credits: Daniel J Grant
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