OBSERVER: Melancholipedia
Being melancholy in this day and age is often seen as a negative emotional and mental state and to be avoided at all costs.
However, across the ages this wasn’t always so. In his often hilarious yet also somehow disturbing one-man show Melancholipedia, which played at Trainscendence in Collingwood, Robbie O’Brien sought to remind us of this and restore respect for melancholia.
An aspiring wannabe TED talk presenter/podcast host, O’Brien gave a slideshow presentation detailing the history of melancholia and how, in the past, revered philosophers and artists spoke highly of it.
However, digression after digression meant the worldview of the presenter was sliced apart with surgical precision, leaving his soul tormented and in tatters.
Created by O’Brien himself, the monologue was evidence of a sharp mind at work. Full of intellectual wit and searing observations, the writing was funny and poignant.
The ideas flew thick and fast but never overshadowed the undercurrents of despair and desperation that were the script’s emotional bedrock.
The writing was reminiscent of Chekov in its “laughter through tears” mood and intensity, where the stories told were indeed bittersweet, having both tragic and comic elements
Aided by dramaturg Morgan Rose and the evocative music of James O’Brien, the script’s mood and intensity was matched by Robbie’s performance where he seemed, at times, to be the very embodiment of melancholia.
One minute, brash and full of confidence, he made sweeping pronouncements on the future of humanity. Then, when the penny dropped as to the diabolic consequences of said pronouncements, he was raw and pitifully exposed.
As grand in scope as it was, though, the show also felt deeply personal. There was always a haunting feeling that O’Brien might have been playing a character, or maybe playing O’Brien, or maybe just being himself, whatever that means.
A difficult show to describe and categorise, Melancholipedia was intriguing and O’Brien definitely a talent to keep an eye on.
Review by Peter Murphy
Pictured: Robbie O’Brien. Photo: Morgan Roberts