'The Wonderful World of Dissocia' by Anthony Neilson
Nottingham New Theatre

Lisa sent her watch off to be fixed, as it is running an hour behind, but on receiving it back is told that in fact it was she that had lost an hour. Lisa is now on a mission to find her lost hour and get her life back on track after being advised by a strange foreign watch mender that she can only do this by visiting a place called "Dissocia"

The wonderful world she travels to, Dissocia, is a colourful and off- kilter place full of funny and strange characters, a cross between the vulgarity of "South Park", and the comic puppetry of "Avenue Q".

However, something brutal and wicked lies just behind the surface of this happy place and once Lisa realises what’s happening, all hell breaks loose.

Anthony Neison’s play is dynamic and thought-provoking, full of music, comedy and sudden bursts of harsh reality, in exploring a world of psychological disconnection.

The play is in two contrasting acts, with the first a vivid recreation of Lisa's dream-like imaginary life, "full of colour and fun", and the second a bleak presentation of the hospital ward in which she is receiving treatment.

Because of the contrast we see the prospect of Lisa's return to wellness as rather unattractive. In this way the play attempts to give us a notion of how the condition affects the sufferer and offers an alternative view of conventional treatments

The lighting in the second, much shorter act, is, again in contrast to the colourful first act, stark black and white, with complete black outs, which could be taken as the days that Lisa finds herself in hospital and the various visitors to her bedside with every black out

Directed by Joe Strickland.and Nat Henderson and Produced by Alice Clothier, I can't imagine that this was an altogether easy task for the three, but from Nat and Hoe's past work, I know that they will have relished this different style of theatre.

Luwa Adebanjo plays Lisa and brings the two sides of mental health together incredibly well with the animated colourful side and the contrasting darker side depicting what could happen when she lapses on her medication.

It was a great idea to use the puppets as the inhabitants of Dissocia because that way it makes the other side of mental health seem more "attractive and fun" if that is the correct description of how we envisage what Lisa can see. But as we see with the "scapegoat", there is always that dark side looming.

Puppetry isn't easy, especially making it look as if it's the puppet speaking and not the actor behind the puppet. Having, in the past, interviewed many "Avenue Q" puppeteers, I appreciate the very different way of acting and channelling everything through the cloth on the end of your hand, and I think they did a great job with the puppets. I certainly found myself watching the puppets and not the actors.

The lighting for this show is very clever and represents the two sides of mental health with it's brightness and colour, and then the blackouts and bright white sections.

Quite a large cast for this one as well with many of the cast playing several characters, so there is plenty to keep you interested in visually.

'The Wonderful World of Dissocia' is at the Nottingham New Theatre until Saturday 7 December