Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (reviewed Saturday 29 March 2025).
Bipolar. Yay. My mother was (finally) diagnosed with it when I was an adult, meaning my entire childhood was spent cowering in the shadow of her violent mood swings. As part of my interminable healing process, I figured a bit of theatre-as-therapy might help. Xavier Coy’s play Fighting deals with this challenging topic, told from his own first hand experience.
Coy is not coy about what’s going in in his head. He creates two voices, one that relentlessly nitpicks and criticises, and the other more gentle, more benign. Jay James-Moody is our protagonist, who must live everyday with this internal noisy dialogue, ‘fighting’ to survive even when plagued by crippling self-doubt and decision paralysis.
My key takeaway from the play is that bipolar manifests differently for differently people, and it doesn’t necessarily turn them into monsters. Our protagonist has manic depressive episodes. He loathes himself. He can’t stop ruminating on all the times he sabotaged himself. He can’t help sabotaging himself. He’s afflicted with social anxiety and awkwardness. He has suicide ideation. And yet, he seems so likeable, coming across as very humanistic in his self-expressiveness and capacity to feel. His relationship with his sex-crazed co-workers, oversharing every sordid detail, demonstrates that he has a good degree of restraint, patience and emotional regulation. I wish my mother had that.
The dramatic context (dealing with co-workers), rather than say – a doctor’s office – is probably attributed to Coy’s intention to eschew what he describes as ‘trauma porn’. He wants you to know what it’s like going through life having to listen to others brag about their love life while you’re aching inside with the pain of loneliness and fear of chronic rejection.
Our protagonist does a superb job of masking his shame and inferiority complex. His limerence for his boss’ gentle, unassuming nature makes perfect sense to me. When we’re emotionally wobbly, we latch onto those who show us a bit of kindness. When she gets him to ‘hold his heart’ in a mediative state during their food court scene, the entire audience felt that connection, a need for a cuddle. Actor Sophie Highmore has a soothing voice and very expressive hands!
The setting – green and pink wallpaper from roof to ceiling – implies brain plasma in a mushy state. Aesthetically, it’s a bit too abstract and jarring. Sometimes you need a more obvious visual context – a cubicle, for instance – or an impression of Van Gogh’s painting of his room. Something to show the struggle of getting from A to B. Getting out of bed. Getting to work. Standing in line at a supermarket and not wanting to scream.
Speaking of which…please no more high pitched ear-splitting frequencies which occurs at least twice in the performance. It’s completely unnecessary (and not written in the warning notes). Trust that the script is enough, which it is.
Some really outstanding performances from Jay James-Moody, Sophie Highmore and David Woodland, who bring melodious delivery to Coy’s poetically crafted and heartfelt words.
Fighting is on at New Theatre til 12 April 2025. For tickets and showtimes, go to https://newtheatre.org.au/fighting/
CREDITS
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer / Director – Xavier Coy
Set Designer – Tom Bannerman
Costume Designer – Hansen
Lighting Designer – Robin Legal
Sound Designer – Mehran Mortezaei
CAST
Character A – Jay James-Moody
Character B – Sophie Highmore
Character C – Dave Woodland
PRODUCTION TEAM AND CREW
Production Coordinator – Gemma Greer
Stage Manager / Operator – Alastor Gooley
Set Construction / Bump-in – Tom Bannerman, Stuart Corner, Owen Hirschfeld, Synyee Hong, David Marshfield-Martin, Adrian Stark, Rodger Wishart
Production Photography – Chris Lundie