‘Spectrum’ challenges views of mental health
Between 1987 and 2007, there was a 35-fold increase in the number of children qualifying for disability benefits because of mental disorders. Ten percent of 10-year-old boys now take daily stimulants for ADHD. Even younger children are being prescribed drugs never approved by the FDA for use by such young people.
The collateral damage left by big pharma’s increasing control of psychotherapy in America is in plain view in “On the Spectrum.”
Unfolding over just 45 minutes, this brave and straightforward show is written and performed by Thom J. Cauley, under the direction of Jessi Miller and the auspices of Quasimondo Physical Theatre. It can be infuriating. It should be.
Cauley’s piece begins on a nearly bare stage, dominated by a tall box — akin to a portable locker, or coffin — in the middle and graced by a coat stand enabling quick changes in the upstage right corner.
Recorded adult voices — never a good thing in this show, where nearly all the adults are part of the problem — worry that “Thom” (as the main character Cauley plays is named) doesn’t know how to interact with others.
Once upon a time, such a child might have simply been considered quiet and introspective. That seems to be young Thom’s view of himself. As he plays with a puzzle box, he suggests that what sets him apart from other children is no more than his ability to lose himself in such beautiful and fascinating objects.
But the worried adults want him tested, triggering a series of fractious encounters with a regimenting medical profession intent on figuring out what’s wrong rather than tolerating difference.
During the course of the show, they’ll subject Thom to a series of tests — analogized, here, to those one takes in school, where we see a breathless Thom run from class to class like a mouse in a maze, responding to buzzers and bells that clamor for him to either learn in a particular way or be castigated as slow and wrong.
While Thom’s docs and counselors try on various diagnoses — including Asperger’s, ADHD and autism — none of them stick, which doesn’t stop the professionals from prescribing fistfuls of drugs. After enacting a commercial sending up Ritalin, Thom takes them and grows worse, as we see through a dance routine featuring “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “Clap Yo’ Hands.”
Thom tells us he needs to get out of the box, referring to both his predicament and the prop that embodies it. And he eventually does, as that box unfolds to reveal a world bright with color from across the spectrum — liberating Thom to express a many-sided self that refuses to be bound by others’ prescriptions of who he should be.
“On the Spectrum” continues through Thursday at Milwaukee Cooperative, second floor of the Shops of Grand Avenue, 161 W. Wisconsin Ave. For tickets, visit quasimondo.org. Read more about this production at TapMilwaukee.com.