Antidepressed

Although I won't be able to see all the shows at the Antidepressant Festival — I've already missed two one-night-only shows — I'm continuing to see as many as I can. The tally of shows I've seen so far (not including my own, obviously): eight.

(Considering the Brick Theater is a couple blocks away from where I live and I get to see the shows for free, being a participant, this constant theatergoing isn't as Herculean a feat as you may think.)

I'm hoping to catch a couple more, although I have some other obligations outside the festival that will make my attendance this week a bit less omnipresent than last.

I really dug Blue Coyote's Glee Club. I had enjoyed reading Mr. Freeman's script, but the cast and director Kyle Ancowitz brought a bunch more to the table to make this a bleakly funny show that leaves you with a dopey grin on your face and a slightly queasy feeling in your gut.

(I'm still giggling to myself over Stephen Speights' role as the choir's conductor when he blurts out, "FUCK IT!" as he convulses with rage during one portion of the rehearsal. There's something about unprovoked, not-quite-justified rage that I find funny as all hell.)

The blurb on the Antidepressant site (deliberately) doesn't accurately describe the show. And, to not offer any spoilers, I shan't describe it much more on this site, either, except to say it's about, er, a glee club (duh) in Vermont getting ready to do their most important gig of the season. And of course, in the case of all good drama, there's a wrench in the plans. It really is the feel-good tragedy of the year.

Also had a fun time with Suspicious Package: Rx, Gyda Arber & Aaron Baker's follow-up to last year's very fun and successful interactive iPod noir show. Whereas last year's Suspicious Package show was an interactive old school film noir, this year, it's a Twilight Zone-style science fiction story an apocalypse, a bunch of clinically depressed survivors and tiny robots in our brains forcing us to be happy all the time.

Cheery stuff, ain't it?

It's actually a whole lot of fun.

I played the Colonel.

Yeah, I know. You can say it, it's cool. I look like the military type.

I still have a few more shows at the festival I'd like to see, and I'm still hoping to offer a few more shout-outs to other shows I have seen.

So, hey. Since we've still got some time before July 1 (when Infectious Opportunity re-opens), you could do well to check out Glee Club, Suspicious Package: Rx or any of the other dozen or so shows playing at the Brick.

Popping his pills,

James "All Better Now" Comtois