Radar L.A. Review: 'Hospital' At The Tower Theater
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"Hospital" by LAPD and Wunderbaum. Photo by Susan Campbell.
But as messy as it is, it is not as bad as this play.
Walking into the Tower Theater—an interesting venue, a very old world place smelling slightly of urine, which may or may not have been part of the act—a woman lay on a gurney onstage. She was either preparing to act like she was giving birth, acting like she was giving birth, or simply trying to keep the pillow from falling from beneath her shirt. Several actors clad in medical togs wandered about the audience, sang into microphones and leapt around on stage. The audience seemed to be collectively clueless as to whether this was some kind of pre-show stunt or the real show.
By and by, after some more singing and speechifying by various cast members, it became clear that what was happening was a simulation of somebody’s birth in Texas about 65 years ago. John is born in the process of two unfathomable C-sections, producing not just one but two rubber babies. This scene is reminiscent of the one in the Marx Brother’s film “A Day at the Races,” in which Doctor Hackenbush, a vet pretending to be an MD is trying to cure Margaret Dumont’s Mrs. Upjohn. There was lots of chaos and spinning around of gurneys, medical instruments falling on the floor, pans clanking. Only that scene was choreographed and funny and this one was, well, not. To add to the chaos, the company employed the use of a video camera held by the laboring/birthing woman on the gurney, thereby projecting the action on a screen at the back of the stage. This didn’t add anything to what was going on except further confusion.
The production proceeded in this vein for over 90 minutes through a very loose chronology of the history of health care in America from way back in the good ol’ sixties, when getting a broken nose fixed cost about 35 dollars, to modern times in which a retinal detachment repair costs 18,000 dollars. This was the only point in which any sympathy was felt for anyone in this production... poor John and his friends going through all those bills!
Oh, and during the 60’s part of the chronology, the audience gets the chance to see an attractive woman’s breasts! This portion of the performance didn’t seem to have as much to do with health care as it did with the fact that apparently in those days people got an inordinate amount of sex. There was much humping and feeling up of other persons on stage.
In addition, there was some stuff about the problems of getting medical treatment in the Netherlands. The only reason this could be figured out was because much of the cast is Dutch and they wanted us to know that apparently back home it isn’t all cake and ice cream either.
And the great shame in all this is that at this time in this country, as we are perched on the edge of an extremely minimal plan for national health care, a good play on the subject is sorely needed. “Hospital” has the kernel of an idea ripe with theatrical possibilities and it did make some attempt to chronicle the decline of healthcare in America. Anyone with a pulse recognizes that in the last 50 years the system in this country has not only deteriorated, but metamorphosed into a for-profit monster of inefficiency, waste, theft, exploitation and greed. But it was so camouflaged in this production by poor scriptwriting, lack of direction, precision, message, by noise, malfunctioning equipment—they were constantly switching the mics out—that it was undiscernbale and unpleasant to say the least.
"Hospital" is playing through September 29 at the Tower Theater (802 S. Broadway, Los Angeles). Tickets are $15-$25. For more information visit the Radar L.A. website.
More coverage of the Radar L.A. Festival 2013 can be found here.
Contact Contributing Writer Catherine here or follow her on Twitter.
