“It’s… a challenge,” says director Corey McMahon. He’s in rehearsals for Theatre Republic’s next production, The Almighty Sometimes.

Challenges have been the name of the game at Theatre Republic since the company’s inception in 2018 – the show has addressed the crisis of masculinity. Issueexplored the cycles of violence in Angus Cerini’s brutal work Bleeding Treein her book Emily Steel touched on the subject of regret and delusions How Not to Succeed in America and tore apart the subtle racist undertones of the progressive left Garden.

Kendall Feaver is Almighty Sometimes sees the company enter similarly difficult territory by exploring the experience of living with a complex mental illness. The play follows Anna, who has recently turned 18 and decided to stop taking medication for the mental illness she was diagnosed with as a child. Her search for purity and balance causes a rift in the fragile relationships she has with her therapist, her new boyfriend, and her mother.

“This play is a slippery slope,” Corey says. “Every relationship walks a very delicate line between care and control. Living with or around illness is complicated…and this play asks some complicated questions about what it means to care for and love someone. The uncertainty, the ‘sometimes’ that come with worrying about someone. The emotional cost of loving someone.

“There’s no good or bad in Feaver’s art. It’s beautifully drawn but incredibly complex. Everyone’s trying. They’re doing the best they can in the art. But nothing is ever plain and simple… it’s an extraordinary piece in that respect. A real achievement. But art that conveys all those feelings… it’s a delicate thing.”

The play asks a lot of the actors and the audience to ride the waves of Anna’s recovery. The action is fast-paced, sparkling with wit, yet delicately tinged with a sense of sadness and danger – Anna and everyone in her life are part of a very delicate web that slowly unravels over the course of the play. It jumps off the page, combining crushing reality with Anna’s flights of creative audacity and imagination. It’s no wonder it has won awards around the world.

“I can’t believe that such a good play hasn’t been performed here before,” Corey says. “There are plays that are like lightning in a bottle, and this is one of them: beautifully crafted and very intelligent, but still incredibly empathetic and human. It’s sharp and clearly drawn, but full of shades of gray.

“It’s an incredibly rich text… there’s so much to think about, so much to believe, so much drama that teeters on the edge of endurance.”

“Sometimes”, which is in the center Almighty Sometimes permeates every aspect of the work—the audience’s sympathies shift constantly; the characters push themselves too far. The play is fascinatingly unwieldy, a constant theme that runs through Corey’s work at Theatre Republic. When asked why he continues to be drawn to such difficult stories, he laughed.

“Because that’s what the best theatre does! The best theatre starts debates, asks big questions, gets its hands dirty. Asks questions with no easy answers. Wrestles with something. It’s funny, full of life and joy. It’s not conceited or self-serving, its politics are never linear. It’s alive. It’s a conversation.

“I think at Theatre Republic we’ve always wanted to start conversations between artists and audiences – and create world-class theatre with South Australian artists and Australian writers. Anyone who has lived with or supported someone through illness knows that every day is filled with impossible decisions. This play beautifully captures people doing their best, failing and trying again… because that’s what you do when you love someone.

“It’s not easy… to love someone… or do theater, for that matter. But it’s worth it. To tell stories like this.”

The Adelaide premiere season is presented by Theatre Republic in association with the Adelaide Festival Centre.

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