The Damage is Done - 10 out of 10
Deus Ex Femina
TICKETS: The Damage Is Done | Adelaide Fringe
From award-winning company Deus Ex Femina (Adelaide Fringe
Award winners 2022 & 2024), ‘The Damage is Done is a taut, high-voltage
solo about queerness, sisterhood and the fault lines running through an
Italian-Australian home. Fiercely intimate, unsentimental and darkly funny, it
lays bare loyalty, shame and love—what survives, how we transform, and what
love lasts once The Damage is Done.’
A warning to potential show-goers, this show is not for the
faint of heart. The content can be incredibly dark and heavy, and there are
quite a few trigger/content warnings. But despite its distressing nature (or
maybe because of it), it's an important piece of theatre, and I want to
assure interested readers that it's something truly worth experiencing.
Upon entering the stage at the Goodwood Studio Theatre,
complete with iconic cornicello earring and Adidas track pants, it is
immediately apparent to the audience that Katherine is a bona fide member of
the Italian-Australian community. This is then further reinforced by her
opening story of an Italian-style family birthday party, complete with
observations on the numerous family members and their dynamics and dysfunction.
As the story and the show continues, that exact family dynamic and each
individual relationship in it is unravelled, pulled apart piece by piece,
looked at under a microscope (and in a dictionary), and by the end, put
on display in its gloriously messy beauty for all to see.
As an actor and storyteller, Katherine is nothing short of
incredible. Whether you're laughing at jokes, feeling almost physically
constricted by tension, trying to hold back tears or simply sitting in stunned
silence, you will be captivated and completely engaged with every sentence.
Even though Katherine is playing a character named Isadora, it didn't even
click for me until the show was finished that they weren't actually the same
person. I was fully convinced that Katherine was telling me her true life story
beginning to end. How much of the show is based on Katherine's actual life
experiences and how much of it is dramatised or fictional is indiscernible -
the show is so artfully and perfectly written and executed that you will
believe every word spoken as gospel.
Katherine's performance was even further enhanced by the
technical components. Just an occasional sound effect or a simple lighting
change helped change the setting or indicate time passing or simply enhance the
emotional effect of a line. One particular strobe sequence truly stood out,
highlighting how Isadora's life and mental state had spiralled out of control
in the most spectacular way. I'm not normally one to be blown away by lighting
and sound, but it truly added a powerful layer to an already explosive
performance.
It's not often that a show can move me to tears, but this
one-woman show left me crying out the theatre and all the way home. Without
giving away too much of the show or my own life, many parts of the story hit so
close to home one could've forgiven me for thinking the theatre was actually my
living room. And I wasn't the only audience member who was touched by the
production - the audience practically lined up to hug Katherine the second the
house lights came back on.
I'm sad the fringe, and therefore this wonderful production,
is nearing its end - purely because I genuinely want to tell everyone I love,
everyone I've ever known, every stranger I pass on the street and their dogs to
see it. So if you have the chance, please, see this show while you still can.
- Carolina Fioravanti
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