Brenna Harding, Penny Cook and Hannah Waterman in Australian play about youth mental health

When Kendall Feaver’s play makes its Australian debut in Sydney next week, the writer will be braced for the audience’s possible reaction.

Actor Brenna Harding, left, and playwright Kendall Feaver in a rehearsal break in Sydney for The Almighty Sometimes, a play about the choices faced by young people who are medicated for poor mental health. Picture: Justin Lloyd

WHEN Kendall Feaver’s play makes its Australian debut in Sydney next week, the writer will be braced for the audience’s possible reaction.

The Almighty Sometimes was first performed earlier this year in the UK where Feaver is based, and she was amazed to notice that audience members had remained behind after the play and were silently hugging. They turned out to be mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, who had directly connected with what they had just seen on stage.

It was a reaction the Australian playwright didn’t expect. Nor was Feaver prepared for the many audience members who would ring or email her, or wait behind to talk to the actors after the play.

Clearly, The Almighty Sometimes had touched a nerve with many families — those with an adolescent child taking prescribed medications for poor mental health.

The play is set to open at the Stables Theatre in Sydney with 22-year-old Brenna Harding as Anna, who has just turned 18 and is facing decisions about her ongoing treatment for mood and behavioural issues.

Actor Brenna Harding, left, and UK-based Australian playwright Kendall Feaver. Harding takes a lead role in Feaver’s play, The Almighty Sometimes, which examines issues surrounding medication for poor mental health among young people. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Anna is curious. What would life be like without pills? Can she return to being the child she once was? Or have the drugs altered her brain?

Anna’s mother Renee, played by Hannah Waterman, is protective. But with Anna now 18, Renee must let this newly-minted adult feel out her own path.

Harding says Anna is thinking about her identity “and how being on medication intersects with exploring herself and her independence and her relationship with the world”.

“There’s definitely a curiosity to know about herself off medication, and she’s in that period of her life where she’s wanting to explore who she is,” Harding says.

Feaver says her enormous research load for the play included reading psychiatry texts.

“I got training in psychiatric questioning, because so many scenes take place in a (psychiatrist’s) office,” she says.

The Almighty Sometimes, by Kendall Feaver, Griffin Theatre Company, SBW Stables Theatre, 10 Nimrod St, Kings Cross; July 27-September 8, $38-$60 ($20 Monday rush), griffintheatre.com.au