Theatre: Trance at The Bush

Being a typical small black box theatre, The Bush invites intense plays with a cast of two or three. Trance by Japanese playwright Shoji Kokami perfectly fits the bill, and fills the space with nutter-esque wit and charm: three high school friends pump into each other years later, one has become an psychiatrist, the second a writer and her patient, who also has a crush on her. The triangle is complemented by the third, who lives his identity as a drag queen, with a crush on the writer.

In his schizoid paranoia, the writer believes he is the last emperor of Japan, so his friends need to play roles that fit into this world, in order to be with him and try and help him. That's the plot, and the acting is loud, fast, crazy at times, and painfully funny, especially on the drag queen's side. Towards the end, the script plays with Descartes notion of dreaming and knowing when dreaming, and the roles take multiple twists, and at the end you are (intentionally?) made lost and literally loos the plot alongside this fulminant trio.

Not exactly light entertainment, but a great way to leave a stressful work week behind asking yourself the question: What is Normal?

At The Bush Theatre until 30 June 2007