7-29 August 2026
60 minutes
Olive Studio at Greenside @ George Street
Age 16+
Joy Donze has done a great job writing, directing, and taking the lead in this cracking little play about what does and what does not count as mental illness, who controls the narrative, how toxic families intersect with the mental health landscape, and really about how visions and downloads in another time and place would be counted as true spiritual revelations, rather than something that’s needs recourse to the Mental Health Act.Â
Donze is playing Meda with great confidence, who is paranoid about her parents, and developing feelings for a new friend, who may or may not have ulterior motives.
That new friend is in fact Eve, played superbly by Akaina Ghosh, who is employed by the boss of an agency that seems to work in the shadows, played with smarts and quips by Deirdre Lovejoy.
Eve seems to have a moral code and already works in some capacity in mental health, but the fact that the shots seem to be being called by Meda’s parents in this situation exposes the fact that jobs on the right side of the track in mental health are both scarce and poorly paid, and its not inconceivable to imagine a sort of tracking agency exisiting that is staffed by workers who have come up through the system.Â
Donze really does a great job of holding the room, and there is genuine affection between her character and Eve. Donze has some kind of new leg injury, and was doing the whole thing on crutches, which fitted with the character so well it appeared to be a straightforward prop, but it was in fact real, and just illustrated what a trooper Donze is, as she is doing the whole thing probably in some pain, but with a smile.Â
As for the character of Meda, she is whimsical and righteous, maybe completely bonkers, or possibly on the money. There are certainly thousands of people right now living in places like Bali making a living out of exactly the kind of spiritual and sensory world she inhabits. In the end maybe it about just finding your tribe.Â
