#AWW2019 Winner NSW Lit Award for Drama

• Author:  Kendall Feaver
  
• Title: The Almighty Sometimes
  
• Published: 2018
  
• Genre: play
• List of Challenges 2019
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• #AWW2019
• @AusWomenWriters
• @Brow_Books
• @kendallfeaver
• #NSWPLA

Awards:

• Triivia: 2019 Prize for Drama: NSW Literary Awards
• Trivia: 2019 Prize for Drama: Victorian Premier’s Award
• Trivia: 2018  Judges’ Award  Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting
• Trivia: 2018 Best New Play at the UK Theatre Awards

 

Quickscan:

1. The play centers on a young woman (Anna).
2. She  has been medicated for a range of mood and
3. behavioral disorders since she was a child.
4. Now she wants to find out what
5. ...her life would be like without pills.
6. The play takes an unflinching look at
7. mental illness and medication among young people.

 

What is the structure of the play?

1. Act 1 (7 scenes) – reading time:  1 hr 30 min
2. Act 2  (6 scenes) – reading time:        50 min

 

Cover:

1. There are two book covers
2. ….that convey different messages.
3. Daughter: breaking free…carefree and in control of her life
4. …after she chooses to stop her mental illness medication.
5. Mother:  having spent years keeping her daughter safe
6. …is powerless to stop her.

 

Daughter: Anna

Mother: Renée

What is the trigger in Act 1 ….something big at stake?

1. Anna  suffers from mental
2. ….heath issues (bipolar) since she was a child.
3. In Act 1 she is 18 yr and decides
4. …she wants to stop with her medication.
5. This is a very scary decision she makes.
6. It affects  everyone else around her.
7. Her mother really struggles NOT to intervene.

 

What is the tension in the play?

1. Anna has one desire…to stop medicating
2. …and be in control of her life.
3. The journey pursuing this desire forms the plot.
4. The tension for the audience is
5. the DOUBT that is aroused about Anna…
6. “..will she or won’t she break free of the pills?”
   

 

1. Strong point:
2. Ms Feaver generates a subtext (stories of 8 yr girl)
3. ….that she can play off of in the play
4. The history of what has happened
   
5. …moments that refer to the character’s past.
6. are very important part of the play.

 

1. Strong point:
2. The play is deliberately intimidating
3. …about a girl in a sudden state of crisis
4. …to raise awareness
5. …about youth’s mental health issues.
6. Ms Kendall has done extensive research
7. and spoken to many psychiatrists.
8. It took Kendall Feaver 5 years to finish the script.

 

1. Strong Point:
   
2. Title: The Almighty Sometimes
3. …has intrigued me from the beginning!
4. It refers to an option on questionnaires:
5. Never – Always – Sometimes.
6. Sometimes....Anna is troubled
7. …but sometimes  she is
8. …good, kind and capable.
9. It is a hard choice a mother
10. …must make when answering
11. …questions about her daughter.

 

Conclusion:

1. 2-Act structure is a simple.
2. It looks at the character’s journey
3. …in he clinical world living day to day
4. with a mental health condition.
5. There is a routine of life between
6. mother and daughter that passes for existence.
7. Frenetic activity is expressed in the
8. …dialogue with boyfriend Oliver
9. …and psychiatrist Vivienne.
10. Later this gives way to many
11. moments of silence between daughter and mother.
12. Anna  is  pushed to the extreme
13. …as her internal and external worlds explode.
14. Act 1 may feel a bit too long…but keep reading.
15. Act 2 is where the fireworks display starts!

 

Last thoughts:

1. Mother-daughter relationships are complex.
2. Some mothers and daughters are best friends.
3. Some avoid conflict.
4. Others talk through everything…
5. …not so  between Anna and Renée!
6. Strong point:
7. The best part of the play…
8. …as Kendall Feaver  shows us a
9. snapshot of real life with a protective mother
10. …and a daughter who feels she’s been lied
11. …to, misunderstood and mis-diagnosed!
12. The Almighty Sometimes is best seen on stage
13. where sparks will fly between mother and daughter.
14. Reading the play is the only alternative I have
15. ….but am probably missing the best part:
16. …the actors performance!