Writer’s Note: David Williamson, ARIA
Most of us need some mild delusions about ourselves to help us get through life. That we’re a tad more personable, intelligent and talented than perhaps we really are. Monique, the pivotal character in ARIA, being more than a touch narcissistic, needs delusions to prop up her huge but fragile ego. She believes she was destined to become an international opera star until the duties of motherhood intervened, but to compensate for this loss she is convinced her three sons are nigh on perfect. She believes however that these brilliant sons deserved much better wives, and leaves her daughters-in- law in no doubt about her feelings, but as the events of the play unfold, it becomes clear that the daughters-in-law have finally had enough.
I’ve been fascinated with narcissistic personality disorders even since my days at Melbourne University studying psychology. Basically narcissists are hugely self centred and believe the rest of humanity is only there to heap praise on them. Other people’s lives are of no interest to them. But in ARIA I wanted to tackle the moment when a narcissistic personality’s delusions are put under severe threat.
I loved writing all the characters in the play but especially Monique, she’s magnificently insufferable, and I can’t help loving the way she indomitably refuses to be shattered, but reshapes her delusions and soldiers on at the end of the play.
You can inflict flesh wounds on a narcissist but like a shape shifter they rise again to haunt us. Who would have thought a man who encouraged insurrection because he couldn’t accept that he lost an election, would bounce back to become the most powerful man in the world?
Monique’s daughters-in-law might have won the battle but they might not have won the war.
David Williamson AO
David Williamson’s ARIA hits our stage 24 Jan – 15 Mar! Secure your seats today.