Theatrical nervous breakdown
Madrid meets madness in this vibrant adaptation of Almodóvar's cult classic, as Hayes Theatre stages Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, featuring Amy Hack and Aaron Robuck.
It’s Pepa’s world, and everyone else is just living in it.
Following his award-winning, critically acclaimed seasons of Cry Baby and American Psycho, Alexander Berlage returns to the Hayes Theatre to direct the Sydney Premiere of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (WOTVOANB), based on the iconic movie by Pedro Almodóvar.
The production follows Pepa Marcos, a voice actress whose life unravels after being abruptly dumped by her longtime lover Ivan via answering machine. As she desperately tries to contact him, her apartment becomes a refuge for an eccentric cast of characters: Ivan’s mentally unstable ex-wife Lucia; their son Carlos and his uptight fiancée Marisa; and Pepa’s friend Candela, who’s on the run after discovering her lover is a terrorist.
It’s the ‘campness’ of WOTVOANB that drew Aaron Robuck into the role of the taxi driver.
“I’m a big fan of that sort of style of Camp 80s, a bit surreal, colourful, that sort of style of movie and entertainment is something that I’m really drawn to,” Robuck told The AJN. “I haven’t really seen a lot of that sort of style, especially with a Spanish flavour on stage before… it felt like something that I really want to kind of get my teeth into.”
Robuck explained that given the nature of the story itself, it makes perfect sense that the musical is presented with the “high camp colour, drama and comedy” style of Berlage.
Amy Hack, who plays Pepa, said she is thrilled to be working once again with Berlage.
“I just really have so much faith in the visions that he creates,” Hack told The AJN. “Everyone who comes to see his shows, it always leaves a big impact. And it’s never quite the show that you expect you’re going to get. So, you know, you think you’re going to see American Psycho, and it’s inevitably quite different. He makes a big, bold statement on it. So I figured that he would do the same with this show. And I’m pretty humbled that he has entrusted me with the lead role.”
Like Robuck, Hack describes the production as high camp, vivid and the kind of performance where “the colour palette, the style and the size kind of smack you in the face a little bit.”
“We’re so used to seeing things that are quite naturalistic and quite easy to watch. So I think Alex challenges that, especially in a small theatre, [because] it’s got the size and the magnitude of cabaret expression,” Hack explained. “The idea isn’t for audiences to just sit back and accept what they’re receiving. It’s deliberately jarring and challenging and hyper-engaging.”
Robuck told The AJN that he’s lucky to be singing the opening number, but he warns the audience that it gets a tad chaotic.
“It’s the sort of overwhelming chaos of it all,” he laughed. “The opening number is called Madrid and it welcomes everyone to the world of Spain. I think [audiences] will feel like they’re in a hurricane; people will be swept up and laugh at it all – laugh at themselves, laugh at the people on stage. And then they’ll understand how to deal with that sort of chaos and appreciate it.”
Both Robuck and Hack also spoke about the close proximity of the audience and how this enhances the experience of the story.
“Within such a heightened reality of a show, it allows us to let the audience see nuances and subtleties within it,” Robuck explained. “There’s a warning with a show like this that it becomes so huge and cartoony that you end up sort of watching an animated show instead of a musical with real people in it. So what we’ve been doing in rehearsals is finding all those gags and all that telenovela drama, all the over-the-top campiness, and then making sure that you know that there are real people just a metre away from you, looking into your eyes and seeing a real person too.”
Robuck praised the choreographer, Chiara Assetta, saying she is utilising the cast and the set, and still ensuring the choreography is strong, despite the smaller space.
Hack said what audiences are going to get is entertainment.
“People come to the theatre because they want some sense of escaping from their normal lives, and that is what this director and the whole concept behind the film and the story is about,” she said. “It feels good to be able to make something that’s going to energise people a little bit … give people something to talk about, something to feel, is, I think it’s necessary right now.
“Expect something surreal, expect the unexpected.”
Robuck agreed, saying while at first it may seem overwhelming and overstimulating, in the end, the clarity is there.
“We’re gonna throw everything at them,” he laughed. “And in a way, it’s like we’re trying to induce somewhat of a breakdown. It’s the sort of overwhelming chaos of it all in a camp, high energy way.”
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is showing at the Hayes Theatre from May 9 – June 8. For tickets, visit hayestheatre.com.au
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