Drugs, diet, family life, hereditary tendencies, cultural shifts of expectations are all questioned. Is it allergies? Too much sugar? Poor parenting? It's hard to tell and by keeping the child in question off stage until the end we can't easily jump to our own prejudiced conclusions.
Under the direction of Leonard Foglia, although this play drags a bit in the first half, it otherwise glides effortlessly through a myriad of theories and philosophies about how to handle and define ADD. In Loomer's script, characters break through the fourth wall and address the audience or talk about themselves — essentially actors acting as actors. Most notably, Bronson Pinchot in his many doctor roles exclaims in his role as an actor playing a doctor how certain drugs such as the now demonized Ritalin have helped him lead a more focused and rewarding life. We meet some of the neighbors (Marita Geraghty, Johanna Day, and Emma Hunton) who suffer from various problems including OCD and vary on the wisdom of pill-popping solutions. We even have the distraction of the child's babysitter (Emma Hunton) who confides in the mother that cutting is her way of dealing with the pressures of being a teenager — perhaps a bit too serious a sidebar in this rather blithe journey through a modern catalog of ADD treatments.
In delivering her meditation on the many distractions of modern life, Loomer manages to entertain and the cast of this production create multilayered characterizations to help us reflect on our often frantically paced every day life. This play could use a little judicious pruning of the distracting little asides — including a pot shot at George W. Yet take time, not only to smell the roses, but to see this thought-provoking play running at the Mark Taper Forum until April 29.
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