Polar Bears

The reviews of this play about a woman with extreme bipolar disorder, by Mark Haddon, were mixed, leaning towards the not great, and although i can see why (possibly it's quite gimmicky, and a little overwrought), I have to say that I for one really enjoyed it.

Funnily enough i'm not sure it really is about a woman with bipolar disorder - although she's the lead character (Kay). For me, what the play explores with more insight, sensitivity and indeed curiosity is the weight of responsibility (and of love, protection and control) that those in relationships with people with such extreme mental health issues, have to carry, deal with and constantly re-negotiate the boundaries of. the surprising mutual dependence of the characters in this play is fascinating - Kay's mother needs her daughter to be dependent upon her and give her a purpose, John's (Kay's husband's) grounded normalcy is made special through his relationship with Kay, while Kay herself relies on them both to 'love her while it's dark'.

The play opens with Kay's husband and brother in a state of frenzied panic. John (Richard Coyle - i have BIG LOVE for him of old) has killed Kay (Jodhi May), his wife, out of hopeless, desperate, concentrated, exasperation. The situation is handled with a comic mania and is indeed darkly, blackly (but not mockingly) funny. for the remaining 90 minutes the play continues to juggle humour, tenderness and desperate hopelessness with confidence and ease, darting about with hyperactive alacrity - jumping through key moments in the past like a child playing hopscotch and landing on different squares of time. It's erratic, but it never fails to make sense. on occasion there are also rather bizarre imaginary character projections - Kay talks to a Geordie Jesus, John to a young girl (possibly imaginary or a version of Kay), and we hear Kay's telephone call from Oslo when we know she cannot possibly have been there... yet the fantasy/reality schism never jars.

One criticism repeatedly levelled against the play is that it's too much of an extreme situation... Kay is an artist whose periods of frenzied creativity, which match her emotional highs, result in a series of artworks which are initially thought great, but which turn out to be embarrassingly inept. it's a shame, because such a dramatic revelation simply isn't necessary when the thrust of the play is more subtle and powerful.