True crime and religious fervour collide in Melissa Reeves’ squirmy-funny play, first seen at Melbourne’s Malthouse more than a decade ago and now having a very belated Sydney premiere in Belvoir’s 25a season.

The story is inspired by a real one, that of Joan Vollmer, killed in her rural Victorian home by her husband and members of a charismatic Christian sect determined to release her from demonic possession.

At first the tone is comic, with husband Pierce (Julian Garner) maintaining a fraught vigil over his apparently comatose wife Else (Matilda Ridgway). Present also is Else’s sister-in-law Anna (Alex Malone). We’re in the aftermath of something and God, so Pierce and Anna believe, is granting Else the space she needs to recuperate. Pretty soon, she’ll be right as rain.

The lazy buzz of blowflies on this sticking hot night suggests otherwise. 

Alex Malone, Shan-Ri Tan and Matilda Ridgway in Furious Mattress. Photo © Robert Catto

From there, Reeves spins us back in time to show us the ways in which echo chambers of ideas and beliefs can become cacophonous and confused. It...