Mark’s Score: 4 stars
The springboard for Katie Pollock’s new play is that of a curious incident that began in August 2011 in a small town called LeRoy in the western part of New York State. A growing number of teenage girls at the same high school began developing tics and twitches that closely resembled Tourette’s Syndrome. By the end of the school year in June 2012 their ranks had swelled to 18. Theories that it was teenage copycat high jinx or a generational hysteria were quickly dispelled when two new victims presented themselves – a teenage boy and a 36 year old woman. Soon various health and environmental bodies invaded the town in search of a cause, along with the television cameras. However after extensive testing, probing and analysis the results showed nothing- all was normal. Nevertheless the youngsters’ condition carried on. Some managed to control the spasms with medication, therapy, diet and behavioural change. Others did not.
Pollock’s play does not tell this American story, rather it is set somewhere else and focuses on the journey taken by a smaller group of teenage girls. The producers of this drama have described it as an urban detective story in which the investigator is a girl called Poppy and the body is her own. As the disease spreads this particular community begins to fracture along lines that turn into deep fissures. Who and what is to blame and how are they going to fix it?
The internal dilemma in the play is the struggle Poppy and her schoolmates must counter in order to be at first believed and then supported by their families and school. However it is their own generation who abandons them as, tellingly, to be seen consorting with someone showing signs of difference, even weirdness, of not being normal is too mortifying for these peers. Hence there is shame and denial coupled with anger and fear stalking Poppy and her cohorts. Friendships shift and new alliances appear. At stake is loyalty, honesty and for this unknown affliction to not diminish the person within. For a generation wedded to the selfie and constant social networking being marginalised gives little important to existence. For the audience we are invited to contemplate our own society and its perverted link to body-image-fascism.
The skill of the cast in representing the physicality of the tics and spasms is to be praised. Alexandra Morgan as Poppy is particularly deft in finding the correct level and frequency. Cecilia Morrow as Poppy’s mother is in the moment in her many heart-rending scenes, Finley Penrose is genuine as Poppy’s bestie who is challenged down the line in fidelity. As with Morrow and Penrose, Chika Ikogwe shuffles and juggles various characters with aplomb presenting the people who inhabit Poppy’s outside world. Director Anthony Skuse ensures there is great variety in mood and tone throughout, all the while fully supported by the design. The set is a compelling and luminous white rectangular dais evoking a clinically sterile zone – for much is under the microscope in this finely structured play written with a pulsing energy at its centre.
Normal plays until June 15 and will promote great discussion amongst theatre – goers, so don’t miss out. Highly recommended.
Images by: James Balian
Mark G Nagle – Theatre Now
Normal
Katie Pollock
29 May – 15 Jun 2019
Tuesday – Saturday 8pm
Venue: The Old 505 Theatre
Theatre Company: The Uncertainty Principle
Duration: N/A
An urban detective story in which the investigator is a teenage girl and the body is her own.
Poppy has developed a tick. A twitch. A spasm. It spreads through her body, then her group of school friends and before long, the whole town. Nobody can explain it, but as the disease spreads, the community begins to fracture along lines that turn into deep fissures. Who or what is to blame? And how are they going to fix it?
Inspired by the true story of ‘the town that caught tourettes’, this play is dark, provocative and theatrically inventive. An all-female cast of four play eight roles in this award-winning new play.
Ticket Prices
$45 Premium Adults* / $40 Adults / $30 Concession, Industry & Under 30 / ‘Pay what you want’ Previews
* Premium Adult patrons will be given first choice of seating each performance night. As well as securing the best seats in the house, it gives you a chance to invest further in the development of the work you are seeing and allows the Old 505 Theatre to continue to be a vital incubation space for new work.
