Torch the Place - Harper's BAZAAR March 2020

COMPULSIVE HOARDING disorder doesn’t immediately lend itself to humour, but as fans of Benjamin Law will know, dark family comedies are exactly his speciality. For his playwriting debut, the author, presenter, podcast host and screenwriter is taking hoarding out of the realm of reality TV to give it a more human touch. A sympathetic hug, if you will.

Torch the Place, written for Melbourne Theatre Company and directed by Dean Bryant, follows Teresa and her siblings home for their mother’s 60th birthday party. But unbeknownst to her, this isn’t a celebration: it’s an intervention. Teresa’s mum is described as someone who “finds it impossible to let anything go — from grudges to household objects ... her house is enough to give Marie Kondo heart palpitations.” But, as Law says, there’s more to hoarding than that.

“Our discussions about anxiety and depression are getting healthier, but when it comes to compulsive hoarding disorder [CHD], there’s such shame and secrecy around it,” he says. “It’s not just collecting things or not being able to let things go, it’s a mental illness that some studies say affects two million Australians. That’s a lot of people who we turn into the butt of a joke or reality TV subjects.

“Compulsive hoarding disorder usually stems from a site of trauma,” Law explains. “[Throughout the play], you discover the trauma in Teresa’s mum’s story. The kids kind of know about it, but that’s the thing with family history as seen through the eyes of the child: you don’t realise what trauma is until you revisit it as an adult.”

Anyone who has read Law’s memoir essay collection, The Family Law, or watched the television series of the same name might infer that this is a semi-autobiographical play, given the stories Law shared about his parents holding onto relatives’ belongings long after they were deported in the hopes they would return. “Certainly my parents are classic migrants who can’t throw anything out — they’re not quite TV level, but it’s enough to feel like the world might be falling in on you in some rooms,” Law says with a laugh. “That was what got me thinking a lot about the nature of holding onto things, but I wanted to take it to the next level. So while there’s some personal reflection in there, it’s more about raising the stakes.

“As for why I wanted to write it, I just thought, Wow, it really breaks the three big national conversations in Australia: real estate, capitalism gone wrong and mental health. So of course I had to write a comedy about it!”

This story originally appeared in the March 2020 issue of Harper’s BAZAAR magazine. Image: Tim Ashton.