Jude Treder-Wolff's Crazytown: my first psychopath is a solo show about an art-therapist's first job in a psych ward who quickly finds herself overwhelmed by challenges from the patients and indifference from the staff. Treder-Wolff and musical director Wells Hanley add a few songs into the mix in an effort to make the material more than it is, which essentially feels like Treder-Wolff sharing war stories about her work and how unsettling it was to find herself unprepared to do a job after years spent in training. She does some keen, funny impersonations of a chain-smoking, horny patient and a horribly vile nun, but mostly it's a middle-aged woman from New York in over head, and in need of some sympathy. Treder-Wolff misdelivered more than a few lines during the performance I saw on Sunday night, which only added to a sense that the show really isn't all it could be, coming across instead like a long hour spent on a bar stool next to a someone who unexpectedly breaks out into song, albeit with the best of intentions, only to make one wonder what she's doing there in the first place.
Crazytown: my first psychopath can be seen at the San Francisco Fringe Festival September 14, 15, 16.
Crazytown: my first psychopath can be seen at the San Francisco Fringe Festival September 14, 15, 16.
I saw the subject line and assumed this was an autobiographical entry -- it never occurred to me it was a play you saw. Perhaps that's an interesting sidelight into how some see your life.
ReplyDeleteI think that's a reasonable assumption, and though I have largely kept my life out of all of this for the past few months, that's going to change soon.
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