The question shouldn’t be “Psychiatry, a cure for sanity?” but “Why didn’t Maryanne Campbell’s friends organise an intervention to tell her how bad this show is?” This is the worst comedy show I have ever seen.
The first sign that this show was not going to be brilliant was when psychologist Maryanne Campbell walked on stage clutching a fistful of typed A4 notes. And it was all downhill from there. This is not a show; it’s Maryanne Campbell standing on a stage delivering an unsophisticated speech about her life, psychiatry, treatment and therapy with the assistance of a basic PowerPoint presentation.
Campbell told us about her background running a detox centre, touched on using pink marshmallows to help treat the inmates at Goulburn Gaol and briefly commented on some well-known and widely ridiculed psychiatric treatments such as lobotomies and insulin-induced comas. This should be rich material to work with but unfortunately her tragic delivery, lack of stage craft and just very poor material were unable to make us laugh.
There was nearly a full-house for opening night and there were at least six people I knew in the audience from the area. These were people, who like me, were lured in by the catchy title, the promise of intelligent material and the desire to take advantage of comedy in the local neighbourhood. But Sweet Jesus, no-one could have predicted it could be this bad.
The atmosphere in the room was beyond uncomfortable. Ten minutes in, the woman in front of me leaned over to her friends and apologised (clearly it was her idea to come). Strangers were actually looking to each other for validation: “Is this really this terrible?”
You know there’s a little voice in my head saying “Hey, at least she gave it a crack.” But that voice is being drowned out by a stronger, more rational one that says: “It is audacious to expect people to come along and pay $25 to see this show.” When you can see seasoned performers delivering brilliant shows for cheaper prices and longer durations then it really is unfair to expect people to pay this amount.
The main problem I have with this show is the negative repercussions this has on the venue, the festival and the comedy scene. There were people in the foyer afterwards saying things like “I won’t come back here again” and “I thought shows in the comedy festival were supposed to be good.”
On the plus side at 30 minutes in length, it was mercifully short. This is not a case of being the wrong target market; I can confidently assure you that no-one would enjoy this show. I can only hope it becomes a repressed memory for me. Soon.
For more info and booking details go to Psychiatry, A Cure for Sanity?