Fruitcake: Crazy Funny

In Fruitcake, one-man show performer Rob Gee takes us through what it’s like to work in a mental institution administering to the mentally ill. He balances funny anecdotes with gruesomely serious monologues taken from people experiencing frighteningly real delusions. And he does it in a thoroughly entertaining way.

The play resonated with me – particularly the story about the man who believed that the world was set up as a SECRET EXPERIMENT to monitor his choices, complete with microscopic listening devices and invisible cameras affixed to streetlamps, mailboxes and buildings. I liked it because it made me feel like I wasn’t alone. After all, I’ve been experiencing exactly the same sort of problem for years and years. I don’t know why these shadowy GOVERNMENT AGENCIES (!!!) are going to all the trouble, since I’ve never quite been able to pinpoint the attribute that set me apart from my fellow human beings (or are they all just very lifelike ROBOTS?). All I know is that the experiment is real.  The people in the white coats give me the pills so that I won’t be able to hear what the little transmitters are telling me… so what’s the point of putting the transmitters in my teeth while I’m sleeping to begin with? It’s all so complicated. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS???

Getting back to my point, Rob Gee comes at his theme from a position of some expertise: he worked for 11 years in psychiatric units around England, Scotland and Australia. He seems to do it out of love. It’s clear that he emphasizes with the colourful characters he describes, since after all, they are us; you put anyone into the pressure cooker for long enough and the only human response is to go a bit mental.

Check out this show. It's the only sane thing to do.