Review – Pronounced L-O-V-E of the Man Đ

Hold, hold, hold your hand, hold that thought, hold on before you slide into this mad world of psychotic ramblings. Shelly Shiver’s Pronounced L-O-V-E of the Man Đ, created by PSYCHOKNOT THEATRICS, is a confusing profusion of abstract concepts housed in a mental institution.

Visually the piece is quite interesting. Three creepy figures in black wheel the audience one-by-one into the cold, dark basement of New Low Gallery. Tin cans dangle from the ceiling; a haunting figure sits with their back to us, silently watching three television screens. Cardboard box cushions provide minimal comfort for the eighty-minute journey through insanity.

Olga (Natalie Holmwood), a small woman with loud shoes and an obnoxious run, flits around the space, later finding her place on a large hospital bed/trolley that is wheeled back and forth across the space for the majority of the performance. Insincere, shallowly grandiose, unresponsive, unlistening, idea-playing and surface-level, Natalie’s performance left much to be desired in terms of depth and character development.

Conversely, Emily Tomlins gives an astounding performance as the troubled, stuttering, androgynous Đ (pronounced ‘dj’), swinging from mood to mood with intensity and depth through an excitingly devastating emotional journey. The ASMR Whisper Vids on towel-folding that Đ watches (performed by Anna Samson) add an interesting but easily overlooked touch to the complexity of her mental illness.

Dion Mills plays Sleep Salvador, complete with spoon and head-towel accessories. His performance is predictable if you’ve seen him before. If not, it seems impressively connected despite the heightened delivery of the text. The silent stars of the piece were the dancer/trolley pushers who all had fantastic commitment to the physicality and world of the piece. The French-speaking voiceover of Shelly Shiver’s may as well have not even been there.

What were they trying to say? The text might have been deep, but the form of the piece and the delivery meant that the entire performance lacked clarity to the extent of having no meaning. Was that the point? This show was certainly a few straight jackets short of a mental asylum.