Brie Keatley
To explore your trauma onstage is to walk a tricky tightrope between alienating your audience and creating a meaningful piece of entertainment. Thank goodness Therapy: A Musical Comedy is the latter.
Written and performed by Chelsea McRae and Mario Sadra-de Jong, Therapy: A Musical Comedy is about McRae restarting therapy to address the recent ‘dizzy spells’ she’s been having. What follows is a series of therapy sessions in which McRae slowly begins to unwrap her own trauma through songs and monologues. I am a big fan of the premise to begin with, having been to a few therapy sessions myself, but what really sells it for me is McRae’s outstanding charisma. It is extremely hard to act opposite an invisible person (in this case, her therapist) and McRae does it with such ease that it never comes across as anything but genuine.
The music in Therapy: A Musical Comedy is also brilliant. It’s giving New Zealand’s answer to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. (Essentially, eat your heart out Rachel Bloom.) Some highlights for me included a song about there being a special place in hell for abusers and a parody of head, shoulders, knees and toes about modesty. McRae’s impressive vocals are accompanied by Sadra-de Jong’s sparkly piano playing in all the numbers. I also delighted in watching Sadra-de Jong throughout the non-musical bits. The face being served as he reacted to the absurd things McRae said throughout her therapy sessions were just genius. The lighting (Cody McRae) was also excellent, with colour being used very liberally and a perfectly timed fade out at the end being a cherry on top of the whole piece.
In a show about therapy, you can obviously expect some uncomfortable topics to pop up. Therapy: A Musical Comedy handles these uncomfortable topics with grace. As an audience, we are given just enough information about McRae’s trauma to be able to understand the hurt she is processing but we are kept distant from it, perhaps for equally our own safety and McRae’s. I am also very happy to see a list of mental health services on the first page of their programme. Audience care is so incredibly important and I’m glad to see a show like this take it seriously.
Therapy: A Musical Comedy, while having its dark moments, is an absolute joy. It is no wonder to me that it cleaned up at the Dunedin Fringe Festival last year. I would recommend this to anyone who’s had to confront their own trauma through dark humour as you are bound to relate in some capacity.
Therapy: A Musical Comedy is on at BATS Theatre from the 25th of February to the 1st of March. You can get your tickets here.
The music in Therapy: A Musical Comedy is also brilliant. It’s giving New Zealand’s answer to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. (Essentially, eat your heart out Rachel Bloom.) Some highlights for me included a song about there being a special place in hell for abusers and a parody of head, shoulders, knees and toes about modesty. McRae’s impressive vocals are accompanied by Sadra-de Jong’s sparkly piano playing in all the numbers. I also delighted in watching Sadra-de Jong throughout the non-musical bits. The face being served as he reacted to the absurd things McRae said throughout her therapy sessions were just genius. The lighting (Cody McRae) was also excellent, with colour being used very liberally and a perfectly timed fade out at the end being a cherry on top of the whole piece.
In a show about therapy, you can obviously expect some uncomfortable topics to pop up. Therapy: A Musical Comedy handles these uncomfortable topics with grace. As an audience, we are given just enough information about McRae’s trauma to be able to understand the hurt she is processing but we are kept distant from it, perhaps for equally our own safety and McRae’s. I am also very happy to see a list of mental health services on the first page of their programme. Audience care is so incredibly important and I’m glad to see a show like this take it seriously.
Therapy: A Musical Comedy, while having its dark moments, is an absolute joy. It is no wonder to me that it cleaned up at the Dunedin Fringe Festival last year. I would recommend this to anyone who’s had to confront their own trauma through dark humour as you are bound to relate in some capacity.
Therapy: A Musical Comedy is on at BATS Theatre from the 25th of February to the 1st of March. You can get your tickets here.