Coma Land

From the daring and imaginative mind of Will O’Mahony, Black Swan in association with Performing Lines WA presents Coma Land – a magical story celebrating children, difference, and the depths of parental love, in a world premiere season from 20 July 2017.

Boon is smart. Really smart. She’s skipped four years of school, possesses a photographic memory and was playing Mozart and Beethoven aged two. So why is it so hard for her to wake up?

Coma Land tells the story of a child genius who finds herself trapped in a world between life and death. There, she meets Penguin, a young girl determined to fly, and they quickly become friends. But when her protective father stands between them and their escape, Boon soon learns that the one thing you can never outsmart is the truth.

An epic tale about pianos, prodigies, penguins and pandas, Coma Land asks, if it takes ten thousand hours to master something difficult, then why can it take a lifetime to accept something simple?

Written and directed by Will O’Mahony, Coma Land features Kirsty Marillier, in her Black Swan debut, as the child prodigy, Boon. She is joined by Humphrey Bower (Laughter on the 23rd Floor; Day One, A Hotel, Evening), and Amy Mathews, Morgan Owen, and Ben Sutton – who are also making their Black Swan debuts.

Following on from his play Tonsils & Tweezers last year, Will O’Mahony says he is excited by the opportunity to debut his next play with Black Swan. “The first draft of Coma Land was written in January of 2013. At the time I was twenty six, living at home and owned a CV without a writing or directing credit,” says O’Mahony.

“It should come as no surprise then that Coma Land is about parents and children, success and failure. But as the play moved from draft to draft – and there have been ten of them – it became obvious (at least to me) that the story had also captured something of a shift in our culture.”

Will O’Mahony is a multi award-winning actor who began writing and directing in 2012. Directing credits include Tonsils + Tweezers (BSSTC), Body Farm (WAAPA & The Blue Room), The Mars Project (WAAPA & The Blue Room), Great White (Blue Room Theatre), Punk Rock (WAAPA), The Boys (WAAPA) and Fire (WAYTCO). Acting credits include: Angels in America, Part One, Glengarry Glen Ross, Flood, Twelfth Night, pool (no water), and The Dark Room.