In the words of Michael Scott “why are you the way that you are?” Is it in our genes? Our circumstances? Are there other selves inside of us that, under the right conditions, could emerge?
A Little Trojan production presented in association with Bakehouse Theatre Co in the intimacy of KXT on Broadway, Joanna Erskine’s People Will Think You Don’t Love Me is a creative and haunting provocation of this philosophical question. Uplifted by a strong cast and mature direction from Jules Billington (The Swell) this story expands within an uneasy, irresolvable space between a supernatural possession story (via organ donation) and a kind of Wildean psychological thriller; or an inverted body horror, where empowered flesh-and-blood unleashes a monster within.
Our protagonist, Michael (Tom Matthews), had never been physically powerful. He had a heart murmur as a boy – he couldn’t play sports, he couldn’t catch his breath. In his early adulthood, he is given a death sentence by a doctor. Then, a miracle happens: another man dies. A stranger’s vital organ is now knocking on Michael’s chest from the inside giving him a new lease on life – and with every beat, his strength returns, and then grows.
His wife Liz (a well-intentioned, over-excitable busy-body) is so bursting with gratitude, she can’t help but solve the mystery of the unknown donor, and discovers that this ‘Rick’ had a widow, Tommy. She drags her convalescing husband to her home in a very awkward (and funny) encounter amidst a tumult of packing boxes. Ruby Maishman’s Tommy is louchely stunning, sardonic, and straight-talking. Grace Naoum’s Liz is a yapper, too fixated on her ‘do-gooder’ self-image to realise that their uninvited presence is, to this grieving woman, a slap in the face.
It should have ended there. But it doesn’t. After the lulling warmth and humour of the initial scenes, things take a decidedly odd turn. Without the knowledge of his wife, Michael goes back to Tommy’s apartment. At first his motives seem innocent – he brings her milk, he changes a lightbulb. Then, unnervingly, he begins to change.
His masculinity – which never before had a physical outlet – hardens. He becomes aggressive and domineering. Stranger still, he seems to know things, and feel things that were foreign to him – musical talents, secret sayings. Tommy can see he’s acting more and more like her dead husband, and she likes it. In wretched scenes, Liz sees her husband transforming into someone she doesn’t recognise, a hybrid of two very different men. In a Freudian slip, Tommy calls him ‘Mick’, and it sticks.
As our lead, Matthews is convincing in all his versions. His transformation is made more compelling by the non-linear structure of the play, which moves us back and forth through time in a tangled loop, including to the day before Liz and Michael’s marriage. Stitching us back to the centrepoint is a scene, scattered throughout, where Liz is sitting alone under a harsh light – she’s reading some kind of donor recipient guide, her answers filled out.
In a production that could easily be botched by heavy-handedness or histrionics, Clare Hennessy’s understatedly eerie ambient sound, and Sam Wylie’s set (featuring a piano) helps to keep the tone largely even.
What is happening here, in the end? Is the corrupt heart of Rick – a selfish keyboard player with a violent streak – alive within Michael, taking over his entire body like a virus? Or are two strangers co-deluding each other in some twisted sadomasochistic power game?
What I like most about this Silver Gull Play Award-winning play is that it doesn’t undermine itself by attempting an answer. One part of me leans towards the more logical explanation (have you seen how gym bros puff up their egos as they puff up their pecs?), even if the premise is extrapolated to an unlikely degree; and another part of me is seduced by the spookier version.
In its Australian premiere, People Will Think You Don’t Love Me is a strong addition to KXT on Broadway’s season programming. Its final showing is Saturday, November 30. You can purchase tickets over here.
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