Précis
Madeleine is an exploration of schizophrenia and its effect on a young woman and her family. Madeleine is an intelligent and vibrant young woman who is becoming schizophrenic.
Madeleine exposes the uncertain world of mental illness for open contemplation in a poetic reality of emotional depth, dark humour, beauty and horror. This highly researched and deeply moving drama reveals the inside world of a schizophrenic young woman and the traumatic consequences for those around her.
Photography: long shots by Ben Cobham and close ups by Ponch Hawkes.
Home page image Jeff Busby.
Call of the Wild | Remember | The Black Sequin Dress | Still Angela | Kitten
Synopsis
Maddy is turning 19. Her world is becoming increasingly bizarre as psychic forces beyond her control take hold. When her sister returns to the family home for the birthday she finds Maddy at a point of crisis, with the parents unable to cope. Maddy, desperate to obey the demands of her inner voices is pursuing a new and better world, dragging the whole family towards a tragic outcome.
Article: On the Edge Project
From an upcoming publication by Dr Denise Varney – APG writers: 1968-2008 (working title)
The On the Edge Series of Kitten and Madeleine explore the world of mental illness ascribing to the afflicted subject a poetic truth that validates them as human beings even as they live outside the framework of everyday life.
What gives coherence to Kemp’s body of work for the theatre is a commitment to intensity, to an uncompromising vision and a determination to keep the work process evolving. She represents in a concentrated and meticulous way the energy, imagination and critical awareness of the sixties as well as its extremes and its daring. Her politics of liberation has cantered around freeing the unconscious from social restraint. She is a major artist who has gone all the way with art and has the distinction of being the only female playwright to emerge from the APG era.’
Writer/ Director Notes
The On the Edge Project:
Madeleine: is the second in a cycle of new works, by Black Sequin Productions, exploring mental illness.
The first was Kitten – a bi polar soap opera, seen at the Melbourne International Festival for the Arts 2008 Malthouse, explored Bi Polar disorder.
It is very difficult for the ‘sane’ to know what is actually going on and how it feels inside a mentally unstable or unwell person. My intention with Madeleine has been to open this world up to the audience. So they can experience both what is happening inside and outside of ‘Maddy’. In Madeleine I have covered three of the most common responses people tend to have to mental illness. One of denial – “this is not happening she just needs friends and a job”, of collusion – “I can help you through this by believing in and supporting you in your world”. And the third – facing the fact of illness – “she is really ill, we need help”. And of course these differences of approach cause a significant splintering in the family itself.
We all live with something unknown in ourselves and beyond our control. Mental illness is complex and multifaceted – those with mental illness are struggling to live within a world that is constructed by and for the ‘sane’. It is as if they are living at times in two worlds in collision. Yet the ‘sane’ too can feel ‘split’ at times fragmented and as if ‘in collision’. My interest lies in how experience and culture shape our notions of sanity. For the sane and the insane – where do the borderlines lie?
The mentally ill often live in a world that has complete and complex logic of it’s own. The logic may be lateral but it can sometimes make a lot of sense, creating an uncannily accurate look into the absurdity the everyday world of the ‘sane’. And by becoming more aware of the world of the ‘insane’, hopefully we can also become more aware of the ‘unknown’ within ourselves.
Creative Team
Writer/Director: Jenny Kemp
Script/Production Dramaturg: Richard Murphet
Movement: Helen Herbertson
Set/Lighting Design: Bluebottle – Ben Cobham
Lighting Realisation: Jen Hector
Costume Design: Harriet Oxley
Performed by:
Maddy: Nikki Shiels
Alex / The King: Ian Scott
Madeleine / The Queen: Margaret Mills
Charley / The Princess: Natasha Herbert
Voice: Richard Murphet
Performance History:
Madeleine premiered
Arts House
3 – 8 August 2010
Arts House
North Melbourne Town Hall
Published:
Madeleine is published as a full length DVD with Contemporary Arts Media.
* For further information go to Further Reading.
Scripts: Full Copies of all Scripts by Jenny Kemp are available from Australian Plays
Reviews:
“The totality of conception and the potent imagery of its realization make Jenny Kemp’s account of the power of a deeply thwarted and flawed imagination chillingly memorable. It should be seen more widely.”
Keith Gallasch – RealTime 99.
You can read the full Keith Gallasch Madeleine Review here.
“Madeleine is ambitious theatre. Trying to understand schizophrenia, much less invent a theatrical language that expresses it with such subtle clarity, is a challenge. Kemp has succeeded wonderfully. The performances are beautiful and frightening, drawing on the tradition of the dream play. And Ben Cobham’s set and lighting are brilliant.”
Ambitious delusions of grandeur – Cameron Woodhead, Courtesy of : The Age – Saturday August 7, 2010 Review
“Modest, concentrated, and minus the spectacle of her previous work, in an age of multimedia tiredness this renewal is achieved by a disciplined performance; one that successfully re-animates the image.”
Tony Wreck 17th August 2010
You can read the full Tony Reck Medeleine Review here.
“This work is rich and dense with suggestion and ideas, whilst allowing space for thought and interpretation. It’s a strikingly relevant and intelligently probing work that presents a journey for the characters and audience alike.”
Suzanne Sandow
Stage whispers 2010
‘Shiels’s performance in the title role of Jenny Kemp’s Madeleine was among the very best seen in Melbourne last year.’
Chris Boyd
The Australian, Jan 17th, 2011
For full reviews and articles visit the further reading page.