From less threatening levels of emotional instability through more serious psychological conditions — like paranoia or schizophrenia — the subject of mental illness is no laughing matter. That goes for the patients — as well as their families and friends — who get drawn into the difficult regimen of treatment and the usually frustrating search for answers.
Dream 7 writer-director Michael L. Walker has some familiarity with the world of institutionalized care of the mentally imbalanced, having been employed years ago in Nashville as a "psych tech" at the former Central State facility in South Nashville. That facility, once named the Central State Hospital for the Insane, was located on the southwest corner of Murfreesboro Road and Donelson Pike. Those hospital buildings were demolished in 1999 to make way for Dell's computer assembly plant.
Such are the interesting things we might learn in backgrounding Walker's original play 2 South, which represents a departure from his usual creations — plays that probe African-American life and history. This multiracial exercise in the spirit of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, in its most serious moments, focuses on the afflicted and their afflictions, reminding us with some poignancy that people who suffer emotional disability usually started once in a much better place, before circumstances began to hold their minds hostage.
Walker's slapdash crafting of his script leaves an opening for dark humor, which sometimes arises from the antics and obsessions of the patients (for example, a lady nicknamed "Swallow," with a penchant for ingesting C batteries and razor blades). But nervous laughs are provoked equally from the infighting among the staff of doctors, nurses, orderlies, etc., generally portrayed as a group as twisted in their own way as the patients they care for. That includes the psych tech who targets minor teenage girls during his days off "huntin' and fishin' " and a social worker with anorexia nervosa. Other professional staffers are portrayed smoking pot and making drug deals, while the chief physician is cooking the Medicaid books to line his pockets.
Generally, Walker's work plays out as a series of episodic scenes, offering a slice-of-life view into the hospital's random inner workings, where chaos often reigns and hospital workers chase after crazed patients in the manner of the Keystone Kops.
Walker's underlying theme is capsulized by the expression, "What does crazy look like?" The author illustrates his point by offering two tableaux in which all the patients, and later the staffers, line the apron of the stage and launch into confessionals from which we learn the details of their shattered lives, sad circumstances or pathetic back-stories involving drug use, emotional crack-ups, career failures, sexual abuse or whatever other human entanglements or missteps have led them to this moment in time. The patients pretty much seem to have it worse, but the employees may not be far behind.
As always, Dream 7 operates on a low budget, and so 2 South is performed on a plain set that might make even Cuckoo's Nest's sterile day room look like a palace. The show appears under-rehearsed and, hence, imprecisely staged, which is too bad, because there are some worthy actors in the cast of 15 who could've given more if it were demanded of them.
If there's a central figure here, it's the nurse Mayleene, portrayed by Deszrike Shaw. She's a consistent and likable presence, even though her character has habits we hope are not found in real-life mental health caretakers. Other key players on the medical staff side are Chequita Winters, LeAndra Crystal, Cynthia Kent, Alex Georgeadis, Derrick Reynolds and Phil Brady. Among the patients, main contributors include Tayla Charite, Alondra White, Jerry Henderson, Myra Stephens and, as the chief "crazy" and scene-stealer, Telma Hardesty, whose tell-it-like-it-is "Granny" portrayal is energetic and maybe best embodies the irony of the situation.
As theater, 2 South is a hit-and-miss affair, made livelier by the occasional intense performance. As commentary on the mental health industry, cynicism rules, though it's partly leavened by honest sympathy for the wards of the state.
Playwright Walker also announced last weekend that, after mounting his productions for 13 years at the Darkhorse Theater, 2 South would be his company's swan song at the reliable Charlotte Avenue space, with future productions presented at a different, as-yet-unannounced venue.
Email Arts@nashvillescene.com
