Trance

Is it America or generation X that is obsessed with violence? Or both?
Either way, in David Hauptschein‘s Edinburgh Fringe First award-winning
play Trance, the nature of violence in our society is explored in an
explosive way. Hit and Run’s production is gut-wrenching
stuff.

At the White Bear Theatre, the small studio space houses Becky Campbell‘s misleadingly soothing set, its flimsy damp walls alluding to a world of gentle sitcoms. In fact, the
Fleegler household is unsettled. There’s Toby, sporting a physical and
possibly psychosomatic disorder, who’s at odds which her punky,
unsympathetic sister Mercury. Together, the two watch gruesome game shows and
discuss how hip murderers are. But it is becoming more and more obvious that
Toby is disturbed, so caring but misguided father Howard calls on an old
friend, psychiatrist Jeanene, to help Toby work through her problems. This
is the first domino in a series of events, which escalate the family’s
situation to tragic proportions.

To give you a feel for the piece, Hauptschein was inspired by Dali’s ‘Soft
Construction of Beans: Premonition of War’ and the mysterious psyche that
drove murderers like Charles Manson. The dialogue is neat and engaging with
the tension building filmicly (think Roman Polanski), the audience trying to
piece together the clues in the narrative as their sense of suspicion grows.
Julio Maria Martino‘s direction has just the right tone – in this small and
perfectly claustrophobic space there’s no room to overplay, but there’s no
danger of this under his steady hand.

Victoria Byrne is still and intense as the enigmatic Toby. Kathryn
Akin‘s psychiatrist is caring without being saccharine, and also mysterious
enough to keep us guessing, while Jonathon Sims‘s straight-talking, good
cop Detective Kocas is completely convincing. In such close quarters, it
would be easy to spot performance flaws, but the cast all are strong – with the exception, that is, of
John Albasiny‘s somewhat erratic Father who is at some moments touching, and at
others a number-crazed Woody Allen.

Like life, questions remain unanswered; we are left with the challenge of tying up the loose ends for ourselves. And that’s not a criticism. Trancehas got the ‘X’ factor – it’s a gripping story, engagingly written and strongly
realised. Extreme viewing.

– Hannah Khalil