Confessions of a Pyromaniac

Max is living the dream, a professional book writer settled in his own house in Sydney with his girlfriend, Sarah. Max helps their young friend David through uni as he in turn assists with the mortgage through his rent contributions and good humour. While on the verge of completing the last book in an early teen series, Max receives a visitor when his sister Chris arrives from Perth.  Persuading Max to let her move in, Chris’s uncompromising attitudes disrupts the domestic harmony and shatters Max’s memories of their childhood. Their father’s catchphrase, ‘Light it up or burn it down’, resonates as Max’s life falls apart; meanwhile Chris follows her confident ambition to find success as a playwright.

Mathew Cooper works a strong character progression for Max, from a writer mildly frustrated by writer’s block but enjoying the company of loved ones to a despairing parody of his abusive, alcoholic father. His early annoyances with untimely interruptions to his flow of writing by everyday life develop into savage, destructive fury while falling behind on the mortgage and alienating those closest to him. Cooper keeps it believable throughout, steadily taking his part through the painful process while Stephanie Somerville plays her infuriatingly believable role as sister, Chris. Somerville delivers Chris’s painfully acute criticisms of those around her with bite. Katya Shevtsov (Sarah) takes her character on a parallel to Max’s, albeit more subtly, from confident belonging to the series of betrayals that leads her to take drastic action. The change is graded; Shevtsov’s Sarah endeavouring to be mature, fair and measured, but the simmering resentment and disillusionment erupt to drive her to desperate measures. Calen Tassone’s David captures the best and worst of youthful energy, from his wide-eyed enthusiasm as a keen student to striving to impress the determinedly disdainful Chris. 

The lighting captures the changing mood, Joe Lui complementing it with a soundtrack that becomes intense with time passing. Clever costuming decisions echo both time lapses and changing states of mind of the various characters, and the subtle use of a cigarette lighter emphasises the motifs of pyromaniac / burning bridges /scorched earth in Chris’s personal relationship policy and the dragons of Max’s stories.

Evocative of the cut and thrust of family tension, Confessions of a Pyromaniac doesn’t shy away from awkward truths, allowing this cast to explore the less than stellar sides of their characters.