Call Me If You Feel Too Happy

A small closet is the hunting ground habitually designated to actors who wish to furnish the Fringe with a monologue. Whilst some of these dank quarters can provide an enthralling hour’s insight into the mind of an unconventional character, the form is so simple that such theatre can all too often descend into dreariness.

Call Me If You Feel Too Happy is the story of Laura, a woman whose undiagnosed bipolar disorder emerges after witnessing the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. As she packs her bags for a new start in New York, her emotions and the significant incidents of her life in the intervening years are laid out.

Beginning with the far from hackneyed line, “Bollocks. Bollocks. Shit. Oh, shit. Shit, shit, shit,” dreariness is certainly not initially forthcoming. However, although the script and the undoubted skills of the performer, Sophie Pelham realistically invoke the harrowing mood changes experienced in bipolar disorder, over simplistic direction—standing on a chair when high, sitting down when depressed—and excessive use of lighting cause the audience to feel patronised rather than informed.

Indeed, whilst the Asian Tsunami is a credible choice as the cause of Laura’s worsening condition, bipolar disorder seems a large enough issue in itself to occupy the full attention of this production – the introduction of such a complex topic as the Tsunami only serves to overcomplicate matters.

The result of this confusion of themes is that mental illness is treated far too superficially here. What could be an educative production about an oft misunderstood condition loses all authority and becomes banal.