Kith and Kin Brings Big Drama to a Small Stage

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Kith and Kin Theatre Collective's ‘Next to Normal’

Kith and Kin Theatre Collective's ‘Next to Normal’

Kith and Kin Theatre Collective presents an unflinching dramatic look at mental illness and contemporary middle-class American life as it stages a close-up production of Next to Normal. The domestic musical resonates heavily through the small space of the Interchange Theatre. Deeper, more elaborate production elements are absent in a staging that brings the drama of one family to strikingly vivid clarity in a tiny black box theater.

Wendy Rightler is crushingly relatable as a harried wife and mother navigating through the bewildering haze of prescription psychopharmaceuticals that she needs in order to get through a day. Patrick Jones is charmingly flawed as a man who desperately wants to keep everything together without actually confronting things directly. Husband and wife inhabit a tiny world that is quite present onstage as it resonates through a tiny cast that also includes daughter, son, boyfriend and clinician. Director Kimberly Laberge has done a good job of bringing the elements together in a cleverly simple rendering of musical-emotional complexity. 

In the tiny space, the music does have a tendency to overwhelm the rest of the production. The band is so very, very close to the action, lending a rock video feel to the staging that tends to wash-out more sophisticated elements of the script. The music is good, so it’s not exactly frustrating having the focus pulled away from the finer elements. Ancillary details may be a bit fuzzy in the emotional intensity of the music, but the main focus of the action onstage remains solidly centered on Rightler and Jones as husband and wife. 

Kith and Kin Theatre Collective’s production of Next to Normal runs through Nov. 19 at the Interchange Theatre Co-Op, 628 N 10th St. For ticket reservations and more, visit kithandkintheatre.com.