The Disorder Plays is a production featuring six short plays rolled into one, each portraying a different mental disorder.
Opening with a psychiatric orderly played by Melissa D. Brown, an introduction is given in the form of a rundown on mental illness, which also serves to set up the first play.
BMW is the story of a young man played by Jed Peterson who begins to realize on the car ride home from time with his obsessive-compulsive mother that his fiancée, played by a hilariously over dramatic Miranda Shields, is in fact very much similar to his mother. Lasting no longer than 10 minutes, the audience is given deep insight into the couple’s seemingly superficial relationship and shares Peterson’s disturbing, albeit comical realization as to the true nature of his fiancée.
Utilized brilliantly to segue between performances, Brown comes out between each play to define and describe the mental disorder that will be portrayed. While Cutting is a marked difference from the previously light-hearted take on mental disorders, Amanda Nichols is perfectly intense in her portrayal of a young girl suffering from a habit of self-mutilation and whose final scene of slicing into her stomach repeatedly is enough to make people shift in their seats with discomfort.
While Another Intervention is enjoyable enough; showcasing a man who is on medication for hypomania being asked by both his wife and boss to cease medication, it is The Third Date that truly shines.
Featuring a couple on their second date, David, played by innocent looking John Graham, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and hopes he can contain himself enough so that he doesn’t scare his date away. Played by a wonderful Courtney Kochuba, Natalie has a tumultuous history when it comes to guys and is taken aback by David’s sincerity and shyness. The two have perfect chemistry and play off each other fantastically, which is only enhanced by their perfect comedic timing.
Following, Emilia’s Wish follows a woman suffering from Munchausen Syndrome. Opening with Emilia in the hospital on her birthday, Emilia speaks directly to the audience as she lays out her numerous hospital visits and how she loves being a hospital patient explaining that the first time she wrote on her Facebook status that she was in the hospital, she got 35 comments. “I’ve never gotten 35 comments before.” Whether purposely breaking her own leg on an icy driveway or sticking lye soap under her arm to raise her temperature, Emilia, played by Jenny Bennett, fills us in on some of her tips. A scene in which she describes the allure of getting a CAT scan, utilizing Jed Peterson’s ballet skills, is a definite highlight.
The final performance, What If…, puts Brown in the spotlight as it is revealed that her neurotic tendencies are more than just tendencies. Going into a veritable diatribe on the possibilities of what if, Brown is impressive in her delivery as she goes from wondering what happens when a chunk of ice falls off a glacier to what if the man in the third row had a heart attack.
With creative, interesting writing, the viewer is easily drawn into the mad world that is laid out before them. The performances while very strong, are better said to be big, as it is only when the house lights go on at the end that you are reminded how small of a theater you are in.
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