Darkness, laughter are finely balanced
Home, written and performed by Freya Desmarais Bats Theatre, Wellington Reviewed by Laurie Atkinson
For the first 10 minutes of Home, I felt that the play I was meant to be watching was probably being performed in one of the two other theatres in Bats.
What I was witnessing was a pretty ordinary standup routine, not the advertised play with a very long title including the words ‘‘hilarious comedy about how I nearly killed myself’’.
Then something arresting happened. The standup slid gently into a carefully structured solo play ‘‘about how I nearly died but didn’t, then learned a lot about life afterwards’’.
The comedy doesn’t disappear; it actually improves as it is juxtaposed between dark scenes concerning depression, suicidal thoughts, and the effect this mental state has on relationships with family, lover and friends.
Freya Desmarais is a natural comedian but also, as many of the best comedians are, an actor who can manipulate and control her audience. One moment, she is clambering through the audience as a sperm winning the race to get to her mother’s womb; the next, she is lying in bed complaining that her chunky thighs are blocking the internet from getting through to the iPad resting on her lap.
The fine balance between darkness and laughter is carefully sustained throughout this 50-minute performance. The positive ending is movingly performed without a drop of sentimentality as the audience is asked to ‘‘pick a path’’ to the future. Desmarais has made her choice, and so must the audience at some point in their lives.