Sisters, Sanity, and Sad History Collide in ‘Madness Lies’
Madness Lies is Chloë Whitehorn’s contribution to this year’s TK Fringe Festival. Described as “Hamlet meets Girl, Interrupted,” the play follows the story of Lettie (Shannon Donnelly) and Leah (Jennifer Verardi), two sisters who find themselves in a psych ward after the death of their father.
Judging by that description alone, I was not expecting the amount of levity and humour that Whitehorn’s script delivers. Darkness aside, the banter between the sisters is quick, sharp, and surprisingly funny. Whitehorn writes like someone familiar with the rhythm, humour, and truth of sibling conversations. Lettie and Leah are not doing alright, and it shows in every exchange.
Donnelly and Verardi are electric as Lettie and Leah, and their onstage chemistry is undeniable. Lettie is cynical, sharp, and jaded, while Leah is sweet, bubbly, and encouraging. The opposing personalities of their characters make for really funny back and forth. They are entirely believable as sisters, right from the wittiness of their conversations to the knowing looks they give each other. At one point, the question comes up: What weapon would you choose in a zombie apocalypse? The follow-up question, Are they fast or slow zombies? is delivered with such great timing it gets one of the biggest laughs of the night.
On the surface, the show is a dark comedy about two very different sisters coping with loss. But beneath that, Whitehorn’s script takes you somewhere deeper, into the long and troubling history of women’s mental health treatment. Asylums once served as detention centres for “loud” or “unruly” women, and insanity diagnoses were often used to control and silence them. In typical Whitehorn style, the dialogue manages to explore serious topics like how insanity was misused, and the real plot is revealed much closer to the end.
Much of the play feels like an intimate chat between sisters; funny, chaotic, and occasionally heartbreaking. It doesn’t need more than the two performers to tell the whole story. Donnelly and Verardi are magnetic in their roles, and the costuming cleverly underscores their differences: Lettie in black, Leah in white. The set is simple, allowing the Baby Grand’s black box space to shift from a cold and indifferent exercise room to something warmer and more familiar.
The dialogue can be a bit all over the place which, if you have siblings, will feel familiar. At times, the greater storyline risks getting lost in the meandering conversations, and I found myself wondering where it was heading. But just as that thought settled in, the plot came back into focus, leading to a clever twist and a deeper revelation in the final scenes.
By the end, the play lands as both a personal story of two sisters and a commentary on how “madness” can be misused as a tool of control. The applause was loud, a sign of how much the audience appreciated both the performances and the story. Madness Lies is riveting, thoughtful, and not afraid to explore deep murky history.
‘Madness Lies,’ presented by Mad River Theatre, is now showing at the Baby Grand in the TK Fringe Festival as part of The Kick & Push Festival. More information can be found here.
