My Darling Patricia
24 March 2009
Meat Market
Visually intricate, deliberately complex, and never dull, My Darling Patricia awakens our subconscious in their Night Garden dreamscape.
University-trained psychiatrists and weekend-market tarot readers believe that dreams reveal our deepest fears and secrets with obscure images; Jungians reveal universal connection through the shared symbolism of our dreams; and Freudians insist that we dream about our parents and our formative sexual experiences. All must approve of My Darling Patricia.
Night Garden is a tale for the theatre, where performance, puppetry and installation combine to explore the relationship of a mother and son in 1980s urban Australia. The iconic Aussie backyard images support the archetypal characters and evoke a sense of familiarity and comfort within the ominous darkness. Like our sleep-time stories, a delicate and blurred narrative symbolically exposes the disturbing truth of the soothing scenes, and the final moments force a re-assessment of all that went before it.
This is complex, intelligent theatrical story telling which allows the imaginations of its audience to fill in the gaps and create their own interpretations of the story. Vividly original images infuse the story with a life beyond its theme and if, like me, you yearn to explore our hidden and intricate shadows, a visit to the Night Garden can leave you shuddering with satisfaction, but its multiple paths can work against it by alienating and confusing those who prefer clear direction.
This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.
