A heartbreatking tragedy, CONFINED is an intimate and immersive foray into the depths of the troubled life of an adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse.

 

The libretto draws on Ovid's archetypes Narcissus and Echo to embody the split personality of a young woman's mind. The story follows Echo's descent into the underworld and traverses the consequences of trauma and irreversible action; the state of psychosis and its landscape.

 

While so much work produced in the regions mirrors the geographical and cultural nuances of local areas, Brennan refused to ghettoise trauma in the local, undertaking extensive primary and secondary research to create a work that speaks to the universality of human suffering [Hickey, Real Time].

 

From the ‘Burning Ghats of Varanasi’ to the ‘Hearing Voices’ conference in Melbourne, countless studies of site and numerous interviews with NT prisoners serving life sentences and survivors of mental illness, including acclaimed artist Anthony Mannix, were undertaken as part of the research for the narrative.

 

Uniquely the libretto features excerpts from 'Journals of a Madman' (1988 – 1992) written by Anthony Mannix whilst inside Gladesville and Rozelle psychiatric hospitals, Sydney.

 

"I attempt sometimes to reproduce schizophrenia, sometimes to find an intelligible or emotionally communicable core which can be imparted to the listener.” Anthony Mannix