Being the solo act is hard. Watching the solo act is, in some ways, harder. As I was leaving SFR on Sept. 17, on my way to the theater, I mentioned to one of my coworkers that I was on my way to see BURST.
"What's it about?" she asked.
"It's a one-woman show about bipolar disorder"—this is where said coworker lost interest—"family loss and Vietnam ."
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To say I had mixed expectations would only be slightly inaccurate. After all, no matter how many shows (one-person or otherwise) I see, something in me can't shake the memory of the scene in The Big Lebowski when Jeff Bridges , John Goodman and Steve Buscemi sit in the theater and discuss Little Larry Sellers while Bridges' landlord rolls around on stage in a leafy toga.
No leafy togas were present at Gray de Young's BURST. But committing approximately 90 minutes to looking at a black backdrop with black-garbed de Young and three pieces of equally black furniture as the only aesthetic might have been asking a bit much.
, an energetic, albeit
hyperactive advertising brander
in San Francisco, suffers a
hypomanic
episode
that leaves her unable to function, followed by a bout of severe
depression
. She's diagnosed with
bipolar II
disorder, gives up her career and returns home to take some rest and recuperation in a haze of familial regularity and drug-regulated normality. Her brother's untimely death (but really, is there such a thing as a timely death except in Hollywood?) shocks her into action, and she travels to
Vietnam
for a meditative sojourn, which is interrupted when she finds enlightenment. Unfortunately, a history of mental illness means that she can't really be sure if she's enlightened or just suffering a bipolar mood swing, so she heads home again.
If you can make it past the fact that it's a
one-person show
(or, for that matter, if you happen to like one-person shows),
is actually an ambitious production.
's multidisciplinary history shows in her stagecraft and minimalist
inclusion of dance forms
, and she makes good use of the space on the sparsely decorated stage. The show is rife with humor, as
's mood swings are portrayed with a nod toward slapstick but, unfortunately, those same mood swings also serve as a somber reminder. No matter how quirky and energetic
seems during her manic swings, the inescapable realization that she's being irresponsible and self-destructive weighs heavily on the levity, and the inevitable depressive turn after each episode is affective and uncomfortable.
BURST
8 pm
Friday and Saturday, Sept. 24 and 25
$15-$20
Armory for the Arts
1050 Old Pecos Trail
474-8400
