Arthur Siri’s Dissonance follows university student Sam as she navigates two romantic interests, and the choices in her life that each represents. This predicament launches Sam into an existential spiral. This leads her to question the nature of our performance of personas, her own aversion to being perceived, and the feeling of being trapped within the expectations of others.
The play opens at a bus-stop with an outstanding performance by Lisa Gillham as Helen. Perfectly embodying the archetypal fake friend, Gillham nails the comedy of this character whilst also setting up the play’s key themes — performativity and perception.
Another stand-out is Aidan Roberts Turner as Daniel. Filling the trope of the flamboyant comedic relief, this character is a breath of fresh air between the dense dialogue of many scenes.
Simplistic yet effective, the set design quietly symbolises the difference between Sam’s two love interests. Whilst Luke is entangled in the web-like social circle that Sam so despises, Adam is completely detached from it. Intelligent set choices emphasize this dynamic — Adam appears in the liminal space of the bus stop, and one other unspecified setting. It becomes apparent through these visual cues that, more than her personal connection with Adam, Sam yearns for the escape from reality which he represents.
However, these nuanced aspects would be more impactful if they were not bulldozed by the main character’s obvious dialogue, which spells everything out too clearly. Although a good performance by Millie Vorbach, her character is doomed to voice a writer’s train of thought. Lost in the intention to fully explain ideas on performance, perception and the cognitive dissonance between the two, much of Sam’s dialogue, especially the final scene, becomes a laborious effort to get the point across. I would rather some things be left to interpretation. Therefore, I felt that Dissonance fell victim at times to an overcomplicated and overexplained message – nonetheless, the premise was promising, some excellent production choices were made, and actors gave fantastic performances.
Image by Madeleine Brady, courtesy of Bedlam Theatre