Welcome to For-Profit Hospital
One of the seven shows as part of Springshot A gue, (noun a fever or shivering fit,) opened this past weekend at 18th and Union. Written and performed by José Amador, it tells the tragic tale, which we hear so often in contemporary times: that of being laid-off, loosing health-care benefits, slowing sinking from couch-surfing to homelessness, while being seriously ill without health insurance.
With the ability to draw the audience in and to evoke compassion, the exposition was executed swiftly with a certain amount of humor and showed off the considerable acting and writing talents of the author/performer. His mimicry of nurses and officious hospital administrators, who keep asking him his social security number, was hilarious.
However, midway through the play, it lost focus and became a surreal horror-story lacking coherence. What started off as a very realistic rendering of a poignant social problem confronting most Americans, went off into nether land. The tone also changed into one of bitterness and anger. Instead of the interesting insightful narrator, Amador became unpleasant. Something so horrific as being in a dungeon type hospital, presented without comic relief, was just not my cup of tea.
Clearly Amador is a talented performer and an exceptional writer. 18th and Union is known for nurturing talent and original scripts. This piece, I believe, with a little more fine-tuning can be turned into a first rate piece of theatre, which could change people’s minds about homelessness, and universal health care.
There is one show, on Sunday, April 7th at 7:30 pm
A gue. By José Amador. 18th & Union. 1406-18th Ave Seattle 98122 ( Central District-just North of the corner of 18th and Union) Sunday 7:30 pm.