NOTE: Both star and director of this show are good friends of mine.
One thing I genuinely love about modern theatre (omygodyesiambeingacademic) is how it has left behind the arrogance that only the so-called "great" are worthy of theatre. We see plays these days about salesmen, about little old ladies, about ordinary people trying to pay their rent, etc.
In this case, we have a one woman show not about her struggle with cancer (she is in remission YAY) but about how interacting with strangers helped her handle the ordeal. More specifically, Rebecca O'Brien rode various buses to and from her treatments, her tests, her shopping for prescriptions as well as stuff like food. What she was facing was a hard time, and she needed a support network that didn't at that moment in her life really exist. Her family were either far away or dealing with other issues (serious ones, this is not a story about neglect or lack of caring). So in the process of Getting There (the "there" being all sorts of things really) she opened herself up to the folks with whom she was sharing the journey. On the bus.
And a mighty interesting, sometimes ridiculous, sometimes scary, sometimes wonderfully wise congregation they proved to be! Nor, and methinks is the real point, was she in particular wildly lucky. She simply, profoundly, opened herself up to the folks around her.
To the half-mad crackhead girl trying to claw her way out of a mental haze I do not want to imagine, to the Russian lady determined to smother this fellow passenger with very welcome kindness, to a butcher who just likes a customer who takes the time to be nice, the driver who makes a snap decision which saves her some money, an random person who makes an extra effort to get Rebecca her phone she had not noticed fell out of her purse. It makes for quite a tapestry, and one that is as genuinely hilarious as it proves moving.
Getting There is almost an anti-Waiting for Godot, not least because she finds herself not at all alone, and refusing to ignore that fact. May we all have the courage and kindness to do the same. I found myself admiring Rebecca as I would a war hero. Or, any kind of hero, really.
Showtimes at the Hudson Theatre Guild 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90038:
- Sunday June 11 2023, 8:00 PM
- Thursday June 15 2023, 8:30 PM
- Sunday June 18 2023, 1:00 PM
- Tuesday June 20 2023, 8:30 PM
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