The Adventures of Wendy the Wonderful… focuses on the experiences, both real and imagined, of a girl named Wendy.  It quickly becomes obvious that Wendy’s rich imaginative life, featuring a cohort of imaginary friends named Leslie, Winston and Mara, is the result of a paucity of affection from her parents.  Their attentions are focused on Wendy’s severely disabled brother, also called Leslie. 

As her unmet need for attention grows, Wendy’s imaginings turn darker, and she becomes more reckless as to the consequences.  The short devised play explores whether Wendy is mentally ill, and if so, how she might have been driven to breach the thin line between having an active imagination and being deluded.  

The play opens with all four actors crowded into the ‘suicide door’ of Bats, egging each other on to jump.  They make their way safely down to the stage, where Wendy (Jennifer Martin) is loudly psychoanalysed by Winston (Simon Leary) and Mara (Biana Seinafo).  Leslie (Kenneth Gaffney) casually lounges to the side of the stage, observing the scene.  

It becomes clear that this is play at psychoanalysis, and we are not yet aware that it is parodying very real events.  The play does not follow a linear structure, with scenes moving from past to present.  The ‘picture’ of where Wendy’s adventures have led her, and why, becomes increasingly clearer throughout the piece.  

The subjects of the over-active fantasy lives of children or adolescents, parental neglect and disabled siblings have been canvassed more thoroughly and more sensitively in plays like Mark Schultz’s A Brief History of Helen of Troy and Lucy O’Brien’s Katydid.  The ‘Creator’s note’ in the programme states the work was born out of cast members’ “fascination” with the “mentally insane”. 

All of the performers bring a lot of energy and commitment to the play, but it veers off into some inevitable clichés and is a wholly one-sided account due to being presented from Wendy’s point of view.  Although the devisers/actors’ creative interests might be satisfied, for the audience the work ultimately does not shed much light on the issues it explores.  

That said, some scenes have a painful emotional truthfulness about them.  The best example of this is the scene portraying Wendy’s 10^th birthday party.  The sadness and loneliness of Wendy after her brother’s behavioural problems hijacks her party is palpable. 

Coherence and clarity between the scenes looks like it is the product of Adam Donald’s direction, assisted by the lighting and sound design (by Morgan Whitfield and Ashlyn Smith respectively).  I also loved Wendy’s voodoo-like chant – it was still stuck in my head the next day.

With more development, and perhaps the addition of a writer or dramaturg, this devised piece could be the basis of a more polished work of greater depth.  The actors certainly have the talent to.  In its current form, the play falls into the trap of so many works devised by young practitioners of being more exploration than fully formed play.   

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