demens
Demens: chilling theatre explores the blurred boundary between sanity and insanity
I know who I am. Most of the time.’
Set in the claustrophobic world of a psychiatric hospital, demens balances extreme pathos with flashes of dark humour as it probes themes of desire, patriarchy and prejudice through the eyes of four people. Each has suffered trauma. Each is damaged, but not broken.
With echoes of a modern-day Blanche Dubois, the pensive Lilith (Louise Crawford) yearns for a lobotomy to cut away the memories that torment her. She obsesses over the tragic figures of Anna Karenina and Emma Bovary – fellow victims of society, who, like Lilith, were also ‘punished’ for daring to break moral and social boundaries.
The manic, troubled, yet adorable Allan (Jai Luke) is fixated on tales of people disappearing at sea. Surely the only answer to these mysteries can be an inter-dimensional vortex – through which he could make his own escape from the pain of his real world?
At the core of Nurse Gabriel (Philip Cristian Claassen) lie sadism, religious obsession and a desire to manipulate. The sexuality of Lilith and Allan both excites and repulses him. He believes he can ‘save’ them. But what are his motives?
The tortured Dr Osmond (Don Bridges) masks his sinister nature behind a very thin veneer of middle-class respectability … yet that veneer is beginning to crack.
An evocative soundscape punctuates the darks themes of this poignant yet gloriously twisted and unnerving piece of theatre.
demens opens on 14 July. 10 performances only. Bookings highly recommended.
Feedback/Comments
how excellent this was. fantastic acting.
great show
This show was great, entertainment from start to finish. The actors were very talented, Jai Luke who played Allan was fantastic!
I appreciate the effort put in by the actors but I didn't enjoy the play at all. The characters were not believable because the characters talked in long convoluted sentences rather than talking to each other like normal people.
The actors performed brilliantly with a difficult story line that was a bit hard to follow at times
The script was written with such a in depth knowledge of mental illness and that there is shades of grey. Actors were brilliant.
Congrats to Louise and Jai for your acting ability. You played your incredibly difficult characters well.
Didn't like this play. It was more about the abuse of power by disgusting, depraved individuals, than of each characters individual mental illness journey. When I thought I was going to have to witness one such instance where Allan was potentially going to be abused by the psychiatrist, I thought seriously of leaving. Thankfully the scene stopped short.
The actors were very good. I little bit dark and hard to follow storyline at times but good to see people getting the issue of mental health out there in the community via artistic avenues/theatre.