An Evening with Psychosis
Maddeningly unfunny verbatim play
An Evening with Psychosis is a tiresome and ill-conceived multi-media play about losing touch with reality. Dramatised extracts from verbatim interviews conducted with people whose lives have been affected by psychosis (the mother of a psychotic teenage boy; a social worker) are interspersed with scenes set in a claustrophobic ‘Space Command Vessel’.
Intended ‘irreverently’ to explore the emergent themes of madness and reality, the spaceship scenes seem unable to decide whether to be comically absurd or serious and moving. Achieving neither humour nor profundity, these long sequences include videos of the action on stage filmed live and projected onto the back wall and equally gratuitous musical numbers.
The production lacks coherence and momentum, leaving it unable to engage its audience. Fortunately, the cast appear to take great pleasure in their own performances, whizzing across the stage on wheelie stools and shouting loudly at each other.