Anyone seen YOU WILL GET SICK?- Page 3

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 11/12/22 at 4:18am

Becca Lish is the Wednesday night alternate and she is just as good as Linda (and for any 90s kids she was the voice of Judy Funny on DOUG!) 

[NicoleMWright2]

Posted: 11/13/22 at 5:04pm

TDF put me in F10 last night (moved to 12 to give myself and the patron next to me some extra leg room). I avoided this thread until after I saw the show, but I have a feeling I’ll be thinking about it for a while. So many different ways it can be interpreted. I think the part that really impacted me the most was 5’s appearance. Looking forward to seeing more of Sam Pinkleton’s directing work in the future. 

[TheQuibbler]

Posted: 12/3/22 at 11:37am

I saw this last night and really enjoyed it. I think I loved the play itself and Lavin's performance. What I'm having trouble reconciling are some of the other performances/choices. Like, it must have been a choice for everyone else to act detached, as if they were in some sort of parody of performance art (especially the acting class scene, the other scene that felt reductive), but to what end? It almost clashed with Lavin's very naturalistic performance. Marina Anderson, especially, seem to be in an entirely different play.  Isaac was good, but even he was doing some sort of affect. Any theories here? This certainly wasn't enough to detract me, though it left me with some questions. Thanks to everyone who recommended this, it is a special play. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/11/22 at 5:11pm

Saw the final performance today. I’m really sad this is gone - it meant a lot to me, more than most things recently. I truly hope this has a life and that more people get to experience it. 

[EthelMae]

Posted: 12/11/22 at 5:23pm

Glad you liked it so much, Jordan. So did me and my partner. I saw it 3 times.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 12/12/22 at 12:45pm

Saw this on Saturday and I'm really glad I went.  It was a solid "maybe" for me until I saw the response on this board.  I'd agree with the posters above that I can't really say what this play really "meant" but I enjoyed it nonetheless. But I've loved the discussion on here and even just reading some of the reviews have given me more insight into how it could be interpreted.  But I think what really works for me is just how *human* it is.  Linda Lavin's character could be seen as cold and rapacious but she makes it endearing in a way that we can empathize with.  And that yearning of going home is definitely something that resonates a lot in our post(ish)-pandemic world, of wanting to go back to the way things were before.  The last bit in particular with the set change I thought was absolutely stunning, and seeing #5 embodied on stage was just touching in a way I couldn't really explain.

Would really love to read the script again to dig into the metaphors (there's definitely some stuff I missed), but I had a thought on the Wizard of Oz stuff:

 

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I thought it was interesting how Daniel K. Isaac's character (who by all means I'd consider the main character) is the Scarecrow rather than Dorothy.  But the Scarecrow's goal in The Wizard of Oz was to get a brain, and in this show we see him "regressing" so to speak, getting closer to turning back into straw, unable to move his limbs, etc. And given that his home is in the midwest in a large field of wheat, I wonder if that's also a bit of what he wants to return to.  Like he's now learned too much and wants to get back to that "ignorance is bliss" state, before he had to give up a portion of his life to care for his brother, before his boyfriend broke up with him, etc. 

It's also interesting that people are getting taken by giant birds, which of course correlates mostly to scarecrows, and scarecrows are meant to be a sort of stand-in for when humans can't scare off birds but in this case the humans are the ones getting picked off, and the birds seem to be avoiding #1, despite coming close a few times, so maybe by regressing he is actually avoiding that fate?

And the other characters that sort of represent the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion seem like they haven't quite figured out what they're missing yet (a heart and courage, respectively).  And maybe being in the city means they've become inured to their flaws, or maybe that's the next journey for them to go on, similar to how Isaac becomes the narrator for Lavin at the end.

I don't remember where Callan said she's from, but I think it's the city?  Which would be interesting considering that Dorothy's dream is to go home but she would already be home.  And that could also be why she seems much more comfortable in herself, whereas all of Isaac's delivery seems a bit detached, like he's just reciting the things he's supposed to recite (I'm not pointing this out to be a flaw).

This is mostly just a stream of consciousness of the things I've been trying to think about when reflecting on the play, but would love to hear if other people had similar/different thoughts.

[RushOnIn]

Posted: 12/13/22 at 12:03am

I’m so glad I found this thread!!! My boyfriend and I saw the show four times over its run and haven’t been able to stop talking about it since. We’re not entirely sure what it all means, but it’s been so fun trying to figure it out. We’ll randomly walk into a room and bug the other with a new theory haha. 

The big question that we can’t seem to agree on is why the Wizard of Oz? We talked about a few reasons, like the power of friendship or going home, but couldn’t figure out how sickness plays into any of it. After one of the shows we accidentally met the playwright outside the theater and I knew that was the one question I wanted to ask him in the few seconds we were talking. He was very nice but I could tell didn’t want to say too much because so much of it is open for interpretation, but here’s a very a rough paraphrase of two things he did say:

 

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The Wizard of Oz is a movie that mostly takes place in Dorothy’s head. While he doesn't necessarily think the play only takes place in Actor 1's head, he does think it's an interesting fact to remember that about the original movie.  

A lot of what Actor 1 experiences is in immediate response to what he learns about Linda’s character. It’s why the first monologue she does takes place in what feels like a regular classroom with a podium and notebook and stuff, as opposed to the acting class we see later. It's because he only hears on the phone during that first call that she’s a student at a community college, not what she’s actually studying. He’s filling in the blanks. And then in the same way, the first moment of hay appearing on his body is right after she sings Somewhere Over the Rainbow on the street in front of him. So I think what the playwright was saying (not entirely sure) is that everything is kind of in response to what’s happening around him, specifically Linda’s character. She said school, so he put her in a classroom. She sang that song, so he became a scarecrow. 

Anyway I may be misremembering or not capturing what he said accurately, but I thought that was all really interesting. 

And since I’m here, here are a Wizard of Oz easter eggs my boyfriend and I think we caught:

 

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* In Linda’s first monologue, she talks about walking past a housing complex for midgets. That must be Munchkinland, right? 

* In the acting class scene, the first couple of exercises are to act like lions, tigers, and bears. This was an obvious one but took me so long to catch!

* All of the green represents the Emerald City. There’s the big banner before the show, the flyers in the lobby, and the phones Linda and Actor 1 use. And of course money is green too. 

* This one we’ve debated a lot, but the narrator/brother might be the Wizard? He’s hidden offstage but is revealed in the end to be pulling the strings. 

* We can't decide on the birds. Obviously the movie has flying monkeys, but it doesn't feel quite right. Just throwing it out there though.

 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/13/22 at 12:27am

^ Love all that!!! The only one I could say I don’t agree with (but again - it’s all open to interpretation) would be the brother being the “Wizard”. The Wizard proves to be a fraud whereas Patrick (and I think since the show has closed, I can say this now without putting *spoiler* but I just did anyways) is welcoming him “home” and is there, ready to meet him. What I’m still stuck with is the handing over of the microphone at the end and what that represents. 
 

Everything in this show means something and at the same time could mean absolutely nothing at all.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 12/13/22 at 12:53am

I think the inevitability of death is a big part of the show (though still wondering about the difference between death by bird and death by going home...?), but with the handing over the microphone I think it's a nice parallel that #1 was the caretaker for #5 until he passed and then #5 was in a way taking care of him back afterwards, by narrating his life and describing the events of his life when #1 couldn't (notable that we don't ever see him describe his own condition or even say the word "sick".  And now Callan has her life narrated by #1 who she has just finished taking care of.  Maybe her goal of playing Dorothy is really just her own delusion and it's #1's turn to guide her through that in the similar way that #5 did.

I think #5 could still be the Wizard.  He's at home and ready to meet him, but so was the Wizard.  The falsehood of the Wizard was in what he was purported to be capable of, and if we assume that "home" was #1's goal all along, who's to say he actually got there and it's not just another illusion spurred on by the appearance of #5?

I think the idea of filling in the blanks as #1 learns them is really interesting.  Maybe the whole thing is Callan's world all along, and #1 is just caught in the midst of it.  The whole idea that the side character in someone else's story is the main character in their own story or something.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/13/22 at 1:17am

I would seriously love to sit down with a group of people who’ve seen this, scripts in bands and just go through the play line by line. 

[RushOnIn]

Posted: 12/13/22 at 2:40am

Hahaha You Will Get Sick book club! I can't wait until the script is published. I have so many questions about what was on the page vs what was added for production. 

Having sat with the show for so long now, I think I've decided that its genius lies in the fact that it's a puzzle you don't need to solve in order to enjoy. Even the individual pieces are rewarding and beautiful. Like will I ever be able to fully articulate how sickness works or what sickness means in this play? probably not. But will I always remember the simplicity of the lines "You got sick, that's all. / Yep, that's all"  and how that rocked me in my seat the first time I heard them? Yes.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/13/22 at 6:56am

Things. Happen. 

[TheQuibbler]

Posted: 12/13/22 at 10:49am

Jordan Catalano said: "What I’m still stuck with is the handing over of the microphone at the end and what that represents."

Similar to chrishuyen, I thought this meant that now Callan was going to get sick and #1 was there to narrate/guide her "home," to her death. 

[kurtal]

Posted: 12/13/22 at 4:02pm

Jordan Catalano said: "I would seriously love to sit down with a group of people who’ve seen this, scripts in bands and just go through the play line by line."

I would absolutely do this.

[RushOnIn]

Posted: 12/13/22 at 4:26pm

Something else I keep turning over in my head are names.

Actor 1 doesn't have one, which makes sense.

Actor 2 mostly plays Callan, but I guess technically plays that lady in the park and his mom too. I wonder if there's significance to the name we hear? I googled and Callan (if that's how it's spelled in the script) is a Scottish name meaning "powerful in battle" and "rock." She goes to battle for Actor 1? She is his rock? 

I can't remember all of the names the other character tracks use, but the narrator/5 is Patrick. I tried to find Wizard of Oz parallels or something, but couldn't find any. So maybe names shouldn't be read into too much?

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 12/13/22 at 4:39pm

I'm so excited to buy the script once it's published, and would absolutely love to do a book club.

For #4, I think the boyfriend's name was Liam, and I want to say one of his other characters was David or Daniel maybe?

The Sister also had a name that I wanna say started with T but unsure.

Before looking at the program, I thought that #1's name could actually be "You" and I was actually surprised when it wasn't.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/13/22 at 4:53pm

The boyfriend is referred to as Liam, yes. The caretaker (who he keeps calling Liam) is named Gavin.

The sister's name is Polly. She also plays the co-worker, Margot. 
 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 12/13/22 at 5:06pm

Well I was pretty off.  Seems like Liam/Gavin/Patrick are all either Irish or Scottish and a quick look at Wikipedia says L. Frank Baum had Scots-Irish ancestry.  Correlation there?  The fact that they're all somewhat close in origin has me suspicious

[Hamilfan2]

Posted: 12/14/22 at 6:31pm

TheQuibbler said: "Jordan Catalano said: "What I’m still stuck with is the handing over of the microphone at the end and what that represents."

Similar tochrishuyen, I thought this meant that now Callan was going to get sick and #1 was there to narrate/guide her "home," to her death."

I took a much more optimistic interpretation of this- more along the lines “the family and friends we lose along the way, never really leave us. And are always there guiding us through life, even after they are gone”