Brenna Glazebrook has created a deeply personal show for the Fringe Festival about a condition that can seem funny to outsiders but can be crippling to those who live with it. Although Brenna has had pretty rough time of it she is able to appreciate how crazy and funny it appears in hindsight. Of course OCD or Obssessive Compulsive Disorder manifests itself differently in different people and I found it fascinating to hear a warts and all experience from an articulate, educated, highly functioning comic performer.
Brenna takes us on her journey from a happy middle class childhood with a loving family and how the symptoms of OCD gradually snuck up on her as a teenager, such as counting and checking rituals and the bad thoughts that are often associated with OCD. Brenna’s terrifying thoughts included, as ludicrous & even hilarious as it seems now, her belief that she’d been raped by a cartoon kangaroo who jumped out of the TV from a Caramello Koala advert. So yes OCD can involve a lot more than just washing your hands til they are raw and avoiding stepping on cracks. As things became worse she was able to tell her parents and at 14 she got some therapy and medication. It didn’t end there though, there were other scary hurdles to jump but it was reassuring to know that she has it pretty much under control now.
Brenna uses the theatrical device of a washing basket full of objects that symbolise milestones in her life and pegs them to a line across the stage behind her as she deals with them in the show because she is hanging out her dirty linen. A fun and ritualistic contrivance that is more interesting and pertinent than plain old PowerPoint. She acts out some of her actual OCD rituals, to give us an idea of how annoying and repetitive they can be and is occasionally close to tears when touching on particularly poignant moments.
I think it may be possible that Brenna is still too young and the material is too raw for her to really distance herself enough create a sidesplitting comedy show. She pretty much admitted that doing this show was part of her therapy and it did come across as a little self indulgent at times. We learned very little about her relationship with her father, or anyone else, so although she had tears rolling down her face it was difficult to really grasp the significance of her father buying her a CD player, though it did have the pay off of one of the few great gags in the show. I don’t like to compare but couldn’t help thinking of Jon Richardson, a UK comedian with OCD. I saw his brilliant Edinburgh Award nominated show ‘This Guy At Night’ at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and he was able to not only explore his own dealings with OCD but look at it from a more objective point of view. He also made sure that finding humour for the audience was his main objective.
I went along to OC/DC because I have some interest in and experience with OCD but I don’t imagine it will be for everyone. This is definitely more of a ‘fringe’ show than a comedy show, in fact at one point it felt a bit like a horror show, though like the best horror there were some laughs to lighten things up along the way. I certainly found her experiences entertaining and appreciated how difficult this must have been to write, as well as the little gift for audience members at the end.
Visit the Fringe website for booking details.