Production ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart”

Written & Produced by Liesl Reymers, Korumburra Secondary College

The production story follows a family of strong women – the teenager ‘Jorja’, the working mum ‘Tania’ and the grandmother ‘Mary’.  Dad ‘Brett’ is there, holding all the women together, as they go through the beginning of doctor appointments and ramifications of an early onset dementia diagnosis.

Families are complex organisations, and this family is no different. The situation of keeping Mary at home comes to a head at the end of ACT 1 in quite a dramatic way, and the family decides that home care is no longer an option. Over the course of ACT 1 – Mary often drifts off on her family, and then confuses them for other people. 

However – whilst this is disturbing for her family, the audience actually sees the memories of her 1980’s self as a teenager. In ACT 2, Jorja works out that Mary’s memories are attached to the music of her teenage years. Visiting Mary now is a whole new situation for this family to adapt to.