Review by anonymous
June 18, 2017What I liked
The show was staged beautifully and the technical work went off without a hitch. The cast seemed genuinely dedicated to the project.
What I didn't like
The show needs to decide if this is a comedic interpretation of mental health issues that pokes fun of treatment in a lighthearted way or if this is a story with a true message about mental health issues and go from there.
My overall impression
While I can appreciate what the writer was trying to do when creating Trixie, the outcome was a reductive and insulting interpretation of true mental health issues.
The show had an identity crisis of the same magnitude of Trixies own in the play. It took on several directions and lost its way several times, most notably after it was revealed that Trixie was in fact in a disassociative state. It took far too long to reveal this fact and after it was revealed, there was no clear direction. There were several scenes in which it seemed could have been the end of the play.
Every cliched scene from other notable musicals was poorly integrated into this performance. The spotlight soapbox diatribes, the supportive circle of friends singing around an emotionally distraught Trixie, a vignette of two men wearing spandex zoot suits dancing along to a tacky jingle in an attempt to portray tangible representations of anxiety and depression, the weakling finally standing up for herself by chastising another character – none of these scenes were appropriately integrated and they were in no way cohesive.
Specifically the most offensive takeaway of this performance was the implied entitlement of mental health problems. It felt like instead of portraying a true representation of real mental health problems and how to deal with them in the real world the solutions offered were just as fantastical as Trixie. In one scene a female character was absolutely chastising another male character in a supposed group therapy session, demanding that he validate her problems and feelings. This millennial mindset of entitlement and validation is a sliperly slope and is not only a dangerous message but an irresponsible one of unaccountability and entitlement.
