Well meaning but utterly naive, Cruel Theatre’s case study of an infamous infanticide ends up fetishising mental illness by rendering it in crudely simple terms.
In 2001, born-again Christian Andrea Yates drowned her five children. Postnatal depression and psychosis had led her to believe she was possessed by the devil. The Texan mother’s plea of not guilty by reason of insanity was later rejected in court.
Taurie Kinoshita’s play sets out to find the failings of America’s health and legal systems, but its portrait of schizophrenia is recklessly simple, reducing Yates’s condition to a battle of cartoon consciences. A surface understanding of Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty has a chorus represent writhing devilish voices, while Reason pleads quietly and ineffectively from the sidelines. Kathryn Lewin’s portrayal of Yates is earnest but ignores any middle ground. She’s either sedately drooling or crookedly insane.
Kinoshita demonstrates no selectivity over her material, simply rolling through a linear litany of facts, though she fails to mention the success of Yates’s subsequent appeal. Instead, morbid fascination overwhelms sensitivity and the result is documentary theatre as freak show.