In a world between life and death, reality and non-existence, a young girl faces her biggest challenge yet: waking up.
‘Coma Land’ is the new play from Perth Writer/Director Will O’ Mahony, a fantastical tale of pianos, prodigies, parents and penguins.
“Without giving too much away, ‘Coma Land’ is about a young girl [Boon] who is a child genius, a piano prodigy who has a very difficult relationship with her father and finds herself in a coma,” Will explains.
Boon is transported to Coma Land, a plane of non-existence where people in comas spend time resting and recuperating before re-entering the waking world, where she meets a young girl named Penguin who is determined to fly.
“They strike up a friendship but standing in her way, and between her and her safe escape from Coma Land, is that girl's father,” Will says. “It's a magical story essentially about fathers and daughters; it's a story about striving and acceptance and that tension that we all have, and I think it’s a story that's examining difference.”
Inspired by his own upbringing and an interest in child prodigies, Will has created a vivid story examining the disconnect between parents and their children born with exceptional intellectual and creative talents.
“Everything I write is always personal so there's a lot of my own experience in growing up with my own parents inside the play,” he says. “I got on to a book by Andrew Solomon called ‘Far From The Tree’, it’s an exhaustive book that's looking at when children are born very different from their parents… And there was a chapter about prodigies.”
“What surprised me was that consistent with most of those accounts was a difficulty in connecting with parents and also finding a peer group because they’re more advanced than those their own age but when they spend time with older people they’re ostracised in another way."
'Coma Land' cast – Image © Daniel James GrantWill says a minimalist set design creates a sense of infinite space, a plane of existence without limits or horizons that draws the audience’s focus to the characters. “We asked ourselves how we position this play on a different level of consciousness, because the play takes place in a world between life and death. How do we create a sense of infinity?
“We felt like we were getting closer to that setting, that landscape and design by taking things away. So we've arrived at a very clean stasis space that invites the audience to use more of their imagination. Emphasis wants to be given to the characters at the heart of the story by keeping the space very clean and horizon-less. We really hone in on the human dramas that play out inside of this landscape.”
The world premiere of ‘Coma Land’ is being presented by Black Swan State Theatre Company and Will says it is a production that he hopes audiences can relate to through their own parent-child relationships, whatever they may be.
“Everyone's been a child, everyone has had a parent of one kind or another and I think the play is looking to put on stage the parent-child relationship, or more specifically the father-daughter relationship, in all of its glory and failings.
“There's a very fine line between love and hate, so all characters in the play have a complex relationship with either the fathers in their lives or the daughters in their lives. I do feel it will speak to anyone who's had, for better or worse, a relationship with a parent. I’m hoping that for anyone who sees it, it will resonate with them.”
