In Sarah Richardson’s one-woman show, Katy struggles through a difficult day at the office where she combats something much more threatening
Written and performed by Sarah Richardson, Sun Bear is a one-woman show that subverts expectations from the very onset. Katy works in the office of an undisclosed company. What Katy does there or what the company is involved in is irrelevant. Katy is struggling with something. Initially, we do not know what. We know that she is angry. Angry at everyone around her. We know she is fighting something. We know she needs to remind herself to breathe, to blink, to swallow, repeatedly. We know that whatever it is she is struggling with, it has isolated her. She is brazenly alone – at work, at home, on stage.
Richardson does a phenomenal job slowly clueing the audience into what is going on behind the scenes of Katy’s life. Through a series of stories that float in and out of the main setting of her day at the office, we start to understand the battle Katy is fighting, the demon that has hurt her in the past and whose impact she continues to experience. The troubles she experiences at work begin to appear more complex than what they seemed at the play’s onset. The writing is incredibly funny, sincere and heart breaking. It is easy to see ourselves in Katy because, as Richardson points out herself, in some respect we have all been Katy at a point in our lives. One-person shows are oftentimes convoluted and self-indulgent. Richardson’s writing cleverly avoids these potential pitfalls by being simultaneously self-analytical and allowing Katy to unleash all the feelings that are bubbling up inside her.
Sarah Richardson was captivating as a performer. Her magnetism onstage is not just as a result of her being the sole performer. She is engaging and enigmatic. Different characters were embodied with clear, precise behaviour, making the play’s complex structure easy to follow. The embodiment of the other characters in the play was through the perspective of Katy, made clear by the pronouncement of their habits that grated on Katy’s nerves. However, as the play progresses and we learn more about Katy, the strength of her perspective waivers and the other characters begin to appear more human. This complex idea was performed excellently by Richardson, making the necessary tweaks to the other characters behaviour as she performed.
Sun Bear is incredibly multi-faceted as a production. The hour seemed to fly by, catching the audience by surprise at the play’s close. The piece deserved a slightly stronger finish by the culminating monologue, nevertheless this did not detract from an otherwise incredibly enjoyable and introspection-provoking performance.