THEATRE

“Insomniac Attack”

At C Block Theatre, Gorman House Arts Centre, until July 21.

Reviewed by Helen Musa.

WHEN things go bump in the night, your pillow turns into a ravening monster and your bed tries to eat you up, it’s time to call in Canberra Youth Theatre.

Director/animator Cathy Petöcz and her designer Imogen Keen have built a world where dreams and nightmares are put not so much into words as into visions, where actors aged between seven and nine whip up a nightmare.

A group of young people, reluctantly at a sleepover, grapple with insomnia and their demons. What they encounter is often genuinely scary.

As they attempt to sleep, they are pursued by disembodied arms, penetrating eyes on floating iPhones, dancing skeletons, a bag that disgorges slippers with long claws and, worst of all, a “copycat” face-monster that repeats everything one would-be sleeper says.

Much has been made of the technological prowess displayed in this show, but I thought it was more the mixture of techniques that worked – hand-held masks and puppets, the transformation of everyday objects such as quilts into a ferocious man-eating beast, even the potential of a handbag to come alive – these are all played out in a very theatrical way that would make no sense at all on a big screen.

Youth Theatre’s Junior Ensemble players tread a fine line between horror and humour, but this is definitely not comedy and the loud laughter from one audience member had everyone else puzzled.

Suffice it to say that each character reaches a point of compromise and reconciliation with the worst of their nightmares – losing a favourite cat, having to put up with your parents fighting, being over-aggressive. I was particularly struck by the youngest member of the cast who, turning on her persecutors, bluntly tells them to go away.

Eventually, after lots of grumbling about not been able to sleep, they do go to sleep, watched over by a hovering grove of iPhones – a memorable concluding image.

This is a mood piece, a little slow and disjointed at times as the young performers negotiate their way among the monsters, but nonetheless very gripping.