The nine vignettes that compose John Cariani’s touching Love/Sick are miniature tragedies disguised as romantic comedy situations; ranging from infidelity to murder, they all touch on issues that plague people who enter romantic relationships expecting to “be done” and find the happiness that has been promised to them throughout their lives. It makes sense then that the only thing these scenes have in common is how they’re all happening around/in/or close to an omnipresent department store called Supercenter, from which they get everything from sung telegrams to lunch and new clothes. Cariani understands that consumerism is the drug of choice for the brokenhearted; his Love/Sick will seem like a mirror if you happen to have bookmarked OkCupid and Amazon, and spend your moments of leisure window-shopping in them.
Wonderfully performed by the ensemble, which during the latter dates included Mr. Cariani himself after one of his actors threw out his back, Love/Sick is certainly less lugubrious than the first paragraph of this review suggests; in fact, it is endlessly funny and inventive. At times you will be laughing so hard you might not even notice Cariani’s heart-piercing insights, but will be humming along to the exciting musical interludes, which work both as moments to let out all your nervous giggles, and as moments to unwind and prepare for the next episode.
In the show’s best scene, a young man (Cariani) reveals to his beau (Debargo Sanyal) that he has developed a strange psychological disorder that manifests itself through a loss of one of his senses when he feels threatened or under violent emotional duress; “my body shuts down when it’s dazzled,” he explains. As his significant other expresses his love for him, he suddenly goes deaf, leading to a comedic crescendo that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Marx Brothers film. Another vignette has touches of Edward Albee as a wife (Simone Harrison) confesses to her husband (Sanyal) that marital boredom has led her to develop murderous desires. A playful game of “would you rather” slowly turns into a full on George and Martha horror show, as we see the man reduced to shivers, while his wife, sadly, never seems to find the pleasure she sought.
Similarly we see a woman trying to “find herself” in the boxes stored in her garage, a married couple who realize they forgot to have the baby they’d put in their online planner (“how are you supposed to plan your life if you can’t even see what’s coming?”) and two strangers who acknowledge their attraction for each other is due to an “obsessive impulsive disorder”. With Love/Sick, Cariani has proved himself to be a keen observer of human nature, and a humble author unafraid to acknowledge that he has questions yet to be served by answers. The mere fact that he asks “how come no one ever calls being alone their destiny?” without a trace of irony is worthy of admiration.
