A
sense of humor helps most of us get through difficult times. And that must be
especially true for stand-up comics who face daunting family issues.
Such
is the case for Clevelander Marc Jaffe, an early writer for the Seinfeld show and husband of Karen, a
physician afflicted with early-onset Parkinson’s disease. His largely autobiographical play, co-authored
by another Clevelander, Eric Coble, in on tour with a weekend stop at Dobama
Theatre.
Side Effects
May Include… has its sights set on showing how a devastating condition such as
Parkinson’s, which is progressive and incurable, has many far-reaching impacts
on the person with the disease and many others around her.
From
this standpoint, this one-person play works well, as the script touches on
various aspects of life as it swirls around the every-changing eddies of the
relationship between Phil and Maggie.
And
there are some genuinely funny moments. After listening to a long list of the
possible side effects from a primary Parkinson’s medication—from skin rash to
sudden death—the announcer then cheerily suggests: “Ask your doctor if this
drug is right for you.” We’ve heard that line a million times and never
realized how idiotic it sounded.
However,
those moments of laughter and clarity are bookended by less successful
elements. The opening 20 minutes moves slowly as Phil, a stand-up comedian, muses about his moribund sex life. And the second act is almost totally devoted to analyzing just one
pharmaceutical side effect, Maggie’s increased libido.
We
watch Phil try to deal with this happy accident, eventually taking hard-on pills to
keep up with his increasingly horny wife and then dealing with the dicey
results. There are some chuckles here, but the connection to Parkinson’s fades
away until a late interaction with Phil and Maggie’s young daughter
brings us back.
Solo
performer Andrew J. Pond, under the direction of Wayne Mell, handles a variety
of smaller characters with a sure hand and well-differentiated character
voices. But as Phil he curiously seems less than fully present, which softens
the impact of some of the humorous asides. Indeed, when part of the set fell
apart by accident during one of Phil and Maggie’s romps in bed, Pond sparked to
life with witty ad libs that had a fresher delivery than many of his scripted takes.
Jaffe
and Coble are definitely on to something here, in a play that first appeared at
Cleveland Public Theatre in their annual Big Box play development series. In particular, some of the most touching
and wryly funny moments happen in the last half of the first act, when Phil and
Maggie are just starting to deal with the disease.
That’s
where this play stakes out new ground, and one wishes there were much more of
that material and fewer limp (ha) penis jokes.
Side
Effects May Include…
Through
Sunday, March 24, produced by Madkap Productions at Dobama Theatre, 2340 Lee
Road, Cleveland Heights. Tickets can be purchased at: www.madkapproductions.com or www.brownpapertickets.com
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