Next to Normal, Queanbeyan Players, Belconnen Community Theatre, 15-24 February 2024

 

This is the third time I've seen a production of this 2008 musical, after a not entirely successful production at the Hayes and a much better production a year later by Phoenix players. It's a challenging show to get right - a chamber-rock-opera for a cast of 6 and  a band of 6, dealing with mental illness and family trauma in an intense two and a half hours. It's about how the struggles for mental health take their toll not only on the person suffering but on those around them as well, and it's about how the desire for normality can obscure dealing with brutal lingering aftereffects of trauma. 

Queanbeyan Players has assembled a strong cast for this production - Sarah Hull navigates a challenging score that requires her to sing the pure clarity of "I miss the Mountains" and the rock tempos of "You don't know" with aplomb, humanity, warmth and just the right amount of incipient mania. Dave Smith moves outside his normal confident heroic tenor types into a figure who's motives are far murkier and may in fact be no help whatsoever to his wife and family. Kara Murphy plays their daughter, so guarded from her homelife that a new relationship may parallel the experiences of her parents. Luke Ferdinands has the voice of an angel and the moves of a demon as the embodiment of the family's foundational trauma, insinuating himself into each of the character's lives with ease. John Whinfield as the gentle Henry gives the show its moments of pure innocence and kindness. Andrew Finegan as the doctors who try to treat Diana gives a slightly distant professionalism and, in the end, a desperate pleading for his work to have meant anything at all in the face of clear signs it's been futile. 

The creative team of Belinda Hassall, Christopher Bennie and Jen Hinton assemble a strong production, using domestic spaces as a battleground for the internal struggles of a family. 

This is not an easy show for cast or audiences - it takes us to places of hurt and pain and deals with trauma that lingers well after the end of the show. But it's a powerful experience and absolutely worth catching.