The long and lonesome landscape of sleeplessness is full of heavy and dizzying emotions. In The Insomnia Project, writer and director Natasha Moszenin explores her experience with the condition and the anxious, out-of-body state insomnia often induces.
We meet our four nameless protagonists at the brink of bedtime, each already trapped in their own private hell. Each actor brings a unique physicality to the experience of insomnia. They're paranoid, restless and endlessly frustrated, and these feelings play out through monologue and song, as well as liturgical interpretation of the sleepless state.
This is indeed a musical theatre piece, yet the show floats between genres, combining spoken word and comedy acts with jazz-inspired interludes, at times making it feel like it doesn't really know its place. However, that isn't to say the show is messy. The disjointed structure does evoke a haunting and delirious state of restlessness, and the actors do a great job of conveying that state, particularly when contemplating whether or not to take various sleeping pills and other medications.
The Insomnia Project is a faithful restaging of an insomniac's nightly battle; however, its execution is less than perfect.
