My passion is movies, but I love watching the stage shows at the Basement Theatre (for those outside of NZ, it is in the CBD of my home city Auckland). I may not like or understand everything I see there but I am always energised by it. There is something so inspiring about the shows that play there. I have watched theatre in other spaces but for me the real energy and imagination is at smaller venues like the Basement. There is something about the limitations of the space that attracts some really exciting unique experiences.
I have not been to the Basement in a long time. I did review a show for Theatrescenes a couple weeks ago but prior to that I had not gone to the theatre since November. Generally shows start on Tuesdays, and with my current schedule I would not be able to review any new shows. Outside of the reviews, I do not get to see a lot of theatre because I cannot afford it. Long story longer, I thought that I would not be back for a while.
NARRATOR: Little did he know...
I have been retraining this year for a new career and this past week was a real low point. I was considering dropping out. On Thursday night I got a message asking if I wanted to go to a show - I needed something to look forward to and said yes without caring what it was for.
When I arrived, my friends had already bought the tickets. I began to get excited when the bell rang and we were led upstairs. I have a special fondness for the smaller Studio - you might get a prestige production in the larger downstairs space, but you never know what to expect in the Studio. Physically it may be small, but its capacity for unleashing performers’ and audiences’ imaginations is limitless.
When we enter, the stage was bare, aside from a mike stand and a table covered in posters and bits of paper. People were encouraged to share their own anxieties for Williams to share with the rest of us. In previous years, I would have scribbled something down, but I was still too burnt out.
I regret that I did not because Anxiety... the Musical!? might have been made for me.
Written and performed by Maria Williams, is a one-woman show charting her life, and struggles with mental health.
Williams’s show moves like a snowball down a mountain, rapidly growing in speed and mass until it overwhelms the audience. She sings! She dances! She changes costumes! She compares her life with Taylor Swift’s (complete with charts)!
I hate adding myself to the review, but it was during this last segment in particular that I started making connections with the performer’s life:
We’re in the same age range, hated cross-country and I am training for the same day job she is currently in. The overlaps were so on-point it made me think a) some kind of cosmic order exists in the universe and b) whoever is writing it is a hack with no subtlety whatsoever.
I was already laughing but that realisation sent me over the top.
Williams is incredibly self-lacerating, but there is no nihilism to her perspective. Hilarious, brutal and self-exposing, but there is an underlying empathy beneath the barbs that is hard to describe.
I usually do not focus on audience reactions, but with Anxiety... the Musical!?, it feels necessary. While Willaims’ show is deeply personal, that specificity resonated. I am not versed in the language or concepts of mental health or therapy, but there was an incredibly visceral sense of community in that audience. It was electrifying. People were howling and cackling, in perfect sync with Williams as she continued her self-dissection.
When it was over, the whole room was buzzing. The show felt like an hour of emotional release - whatever you brought into that room was expelled, or at least exhausted. It was the perfect example of why people go to live performances. It was a community of anxious people combining to form a very anxious Voltron - and it was great.
Anxiety… The Musical!? Is playing its last show tonight at the Basement.
Kia ora Tim! Maria here, just stumbled upon this!! thanks for coming, glad it resonated with you. <3 take care
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