Anna Weiss (The Space)

One might say that Anna Weiss is an expedient choice of play considering the current furore surrounding child abuse cases in this country. Indeed, at nearly 20 years since its first production Anna Weiss still has the power to disturb and perplex its audience.

Anna is a therapist who is trained in the dubious science of memory retrieval. She has been caring for Lynn, who now believes that all her life’s unhappiness can be explained by the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her father. It is only through meeting Anna and undergoing hypnosis that Lynn has been able to recover these forgotten memories, and it is only through Anna’s help that Lynn can move forward and recover from the trauma of remembering these forgotten acts. But were they really forgotten, or did they never actually happen at all?

It is terrifying to think of someone as vulnerable as Lynn falling prey to someone as perverse as Anna; she rewrites her past, exacerbates her mental instability and isolates her from friends and family. But Anna’s power reaches further than just Lynn; she is able to manipulate Lynn’s father too.

Although the play is meant to be ambiguous – the playwright Mike Cullen refuses to divulge whether Lynn’s father is guilty or not – Anna is clearly portrayed as a villain in this production. Played by Sandra Paternostro, she is crude and controlling from opening scene and seems to maintain her power through an unrelenting stream of patronising advice.

Lynn, on the other hand, is played by Chloe Walshe with more depth; she begins in a distressed state and builds to a hysterical pitch that is quite unnerving. Once Lynn’s father (Charlie Haskins) arrives, the emotional tempest builds to a nearly unbearable pitch before the situation is bizarrely halted, and the entire narrative is skewed by a sudden revelation. How convincing this last minute volte-face is depends on your view of Anna’s character, but it is hard to pull a character back after it has been continually demonised.

It is worth mentioning that Mike Cullendoesn't spare any of the savage details of the abuse that Lynn recounts. The explicit nature of Lynn’s speeches is, at times, remorseless and makes you question whether this type of language serves the play’s purpose. Do we go away thinking about the nature of power and the frailty of the human mind, or do we just come away repulsed by the thought of child abuse?

Overall, while the acting is commendable and the cast unflinching in their portrayal of the dark subject matter, this is undoubtedly a difficult play to watch.