Distracted

Play (2007)
by Lisa Loomer

With Stacy Fischer (Mama), Nael Nacer (Dad), Brandon Barbosa & Alec Shiman (Jesse), Sara Newhouse (Dr. Zavala), Michelle Dowd (Mrs. Holly, Dr. Waller, Nurse), Steven Barkhimer (Dr. Broder, Dr. Karnes, Dr. Jinx), Kerry A. Dowling (Sherry), April Pressel (Vera), Katie Elinoff (Natalie)

Jesse is nine years old and acts out in all sorts of ways. He has trouble in school, is anxious and rebellious at home, and his parents are beside themselves trying to figure out what to do. They consult a series of doctors, each of whom prescribes a different, uniquely wacky, approach. Their own anxieties about Jesse’s condition and the swirl and conflict of ineffectual treatments build upon the already discombobulated rhythms of modern life to produce a difficult mix.

Because of the deliberate effort to construct a sense of environment in which ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) flourishes, the play, in some ways, is an exercise in endurance as well as an entertainment. Its intent, as a result, is not only cathartic, but existential as well. In a strangely oblique way, it is a child of intensely participatory theatrical approaches – like that of The Living Theater or Jerzy Grotowski’s “Poor” theater that flourished during the sixties – as much as it is of contemporary topical theater.

The actors all do a very good job of creating this tragicomic universe of disjunctions, unfinished sentences, frustrated attempts at one thing or another, and a gyrating aspiration to bring a child into the realm of the manageable.

This play focuses exclusively on the issue at hand. Though we see Jesse’s mother and father at home, mostly arguing about the medical options for their son, we get very little about them independently of this issue. Consequently, the portrayal becomes a kind of caricature of obsessive dealings that rarely settles into anything resembling a normal moment of life. Periodically, such clear oases do emerge out of the discombobulated landscape, and, in relief, they are highly effective. There is an emotional moment when Jesse’s father (Nael Nacer) expresses feeling for his son and it is powerful and beautiful. But they are, seemingly by design, rare.

In lieu of intermittent moments of resolution, this topical play has numerous pungently funny lines that erupt from its intentionally chaotic landscape. Those lines provide temporary, but important, psychic respite from the continuing rumble of agitated movements, screams and jostlings that create the intentionally unsettled mood that prevails throughout.

When the denouement comes, it arrives, as do these intermittent glimpses of ordinary feeling, with a grand gesture towards normality. It is a lovely evolution of a very long setup and welcome when it appears.

Not too much is made of it, though it frames the message of the play; it is left, in a short span, to stand on its own. It does so to a meaningful extent, but I wonder if the play were cast with more contextual realism rather than spoofiness, this emotional and dramatic underbelly of the play might have had more opportunity to surface. The way it is, it makes its point didactically; the other approach might have yielded more lyrical possibilities.

Getting through the play, one thus does come to an experiential end of sorts. That turn makes the evening precious, though the reward is delivered a bit too quickly. After all is said and done, one wants a celebratory feast; instead, it is something more like a take-out meal eaten at home.

The cast is very good, and has on hand some versatile actors on the Boston theater scene – among them, Steve Barkhimer, Sarah Newhouse, Nael Nacer – all exhibiting their considerable talents.

Stacy Fischer, as Jesse’s mother – the harried protagonist – does a good job of conveying desperation mixed with earnestness and confusion.

Nael Nacer, as Jesse’s father, has beautifully expressive moments that rise out, eventually, from a bellowing bustle.

Steve Barkhimer does several broadly funny cartoons of wacko doctors, while occasionally speaking aside to the audience through a fourth wall that he steps through periodically.

Katie Elinoff as Natalie, the teenage babysitter with a big problem, is authentic, vivid and down to earth, delivering her funny but complex role in straightforwardly appealing vernacular. In the play’s manufactured sea of human alienation, her voice rises up, fresh and raw.

The show is a bit long for its dominantly topical focus. A little more context, and a sense of real life, might have been in order and given supportive structure and pacing. Focusing almost exclusively on the ADHD issue and its effect gets to be a bit too much. No doubt that is part of the existential intent – when the denouement comes, it is a great relief, but, before that, the freneticism is a bit attenuated, and my mind did wander a bit; but perhaps, that too, is a part of the larger existential theatrical plan here.

– BADMan