Volume 82, Issue 6 Web Edition
clarion.brevard.edu
SERVING BREVARD COLLEGE SINCE 1935
Look for the trail
review on page 71
October 5, 2016
'Love/Sick' takes
to the stage
By Alex Perri
staff Writer
The Brevard College Theatre Department
showcased a range of BC talent this weekend,
Thursday, Sept. 29 - Sunday, Oct. 2, with its
production of “Love/Sick” by John Cariani.
The play, directed by guest director Peter Sav
age, consisted of nine acts, each with a new set
of characters struggling to make sense of the
complicated state of their relationships.
Especially strong performances from senior
Josh Goldstein, sophomore Sarah Haga, fresh
man Anthony Zuniga, and junior Thomas Cox
in their multiple roles portrayed both humor and
heartbreak with surprising nuance.
I had the pleasure of attending the Sunday
matinee show at Morrison Playhouse, and quite
enjoyed this sometimes bleak yet engagingly
beautiful depiction of modem romance within
the 90 minutes of my afternoon.
Upon walking into Morrison Playhouse the
audience was greeted by a stage set to be within
several aisles of a generic “supercenter.” Each
scene takes place at 7:30 so to suggest that the
play is a snapshot of nine different relationships
at the same point in time.
“Love/Sick” began and ended with a chance
meeting in this supercenter, and the acts in be
tween all made reference to the store in some
way or another. The motif of the oversized, over
commercialized box store was further carried out
in the production by the set design.
Each scene came to life out of one of the
physical aisles of the supercenter. For example,
one scene taking place in the bedroom was
constmcted in between acts from the props on
the “homegoods” aisle. This shuffling of sets
from superstore to people’s homes highlighted
the notion of the commercialization of modem
romance, and how it can sometimes cheapen
the idea of love.
Other high points of the play include depic
tions of bizarre yet charming characters like
a singing telegram man, a man who can’t be
“dazzled” by his boyfriend, or the husband who
endures the world’s worst prank by his wife.
These moments of humor were often immediate
ly followed by characters in profound moments
of sadness, like the couple who find themselves
contemplating marriage in their bathroom on
their wedding day, or the woman “looking for
herself’ in her garage storage boxes after fam
ily life doesn’t measure up to her expectations.
Perhaps the strongest moment of “Love/
Sick” came in the concluding scene, “Destiny”
where an ex-husband and wife literally run into
each other in the superstore and discover both
are dealing with yet another failed marriage. It
strongly contrasts the opening scene “Obsessive
Impulsive” where two people with a fictional
disease fall in love at first sight.
In “Destiny,” Jake (Cox) asks the most poi
gnant question of the night, “How come when
two people meet and fall in love at first sight
and it doesn’t work out, how come no one calls
that destiny?” This bitter realization for the char
acters in the final act, is punctuated by a reap
pearance of the first two people we met from the
play as they make out all across the stage. These
surprising moments of hope within sadness are
what worked to make “Love/Sick” successful.
“Love/Sick” was a strong first production
from the Brevard College Theatre, as it asked
some deep and philosophical questions from
its audience about love and relationships. In a
playhouse filled with both college students and
retirees alike, “Love/Sick” managed to get to
the heart of some timeless conflicts concerning
romance in a refreshing and modem way.
Josh Goldstein and Lily Bartleson in the “Lunch and Dinner” act of “Love/Sick.”