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Recommendations

Recommendations

  • Rachel Feeny-Williams:
    23 Feb. 2022
    When I started reading this piece I didn't know a great deal about OCD but Ben guides his audience through this world expertly and he does it in what can be the difficult format of a one man show. Its wonderfully written and educates the audience on the world of mental healthcare. It informs, it entertains and it inspires emotions. Each of these on their own make great theatre but for Ben to create a piece that does all three, is just brilliant. If given the right performers, it would be marvellous to watch!
  • Cheryl Bear:
    19 Aug. 2020
    A powerhouse of a play that truly takes us into the disease of OCD from a culture that promotes self doubt, perfectionism and anxiety. A great play to shed light on an epidemic that needs our understanding and help to heal. Well done.
  • Nick Malakhow:
    15 Jul. 2020
    Beautifully written and structured solo show that makes excellent use of the form. Rosenblatt's piece feels both deeply personal, intimate, and specific, while also being extremely relatable and universal in how it zooms out to articulate others' experiences. OCD is explored here in such a way that makes it accessible to folks unfamiliar with the disorder while simultaneously providing nuanced and essential representation that is reaffirming for those who are living with it, as well as for anyone who has been stigmatized for their mental health issues. Hilarious, fast-paced, poignant, and engaging!
  • Toby Malone:
    14 Jul. 2020
    "“I’m so OCD” doesn’t even make sense, grammatically."

    So says Jess, one of the many vibrant characters that people this sprawling, intimate one-man-show with such diversity and breadth that you can very easily forget it's all to be performed by one actor, which then flips into a longing to see this taken on by someone talented enough do it justice. "I'm so OCD" doesn't make grammatical sense, but OCD doesn't make any other kind of sense in general. Ben, our protagonist, struggles with what he can't explain or quantify, and we join in his quest for knowledge. Masterful.
  • TJ Young:
    12 Jul. 2020
    One-person shows can be difficult to nail down. This one does it so well. Allowing us to have a deep and personal dive into the mind and life of someone with OCD and how they deal with exploring their sexuality. It is unflinching in the conversation, stretching out the thoughts and process of Ben and placing us in a seat where we can listen, experience, and understand. The audience interactions are great, living up to the ambition of the piece itself. It is personal, powerful, playful, and provocative. This play has heart by the buckets.
  • Cindi Sansone-Braff:
    11 Jul. 2020
    This is a gripping one-act docu-drama about OCD. Having been surrounded by OCD’s my whole life, this was a very accurate depiction of this all-too-prevalent, mental disorder. Hopeful, healing, and heartfelt, this play deserves a full-production. A great vehicle for an ambitious actor. Bravo!
  • Arthur Gramm:
    6 Aug. 2019
    I have never read a play that was more willing, more able, to be self aware and honest with itself and its audience. As this play deep-dives into OCD within the lives of its characters, you slowly realize that this is not a play about OCD, but is a work that embodies OCD. This renders it a powerful snapshot that the audience cannot help but connect to, because it is so real and so authentic. This is a play that questions itself, questions the audience, and brings to life the anxiety and doubt of living.
  • Donna Hoke:
    5 Aug. 2019
    So skillful in rendering a portrait of OCD that you can almost feel what it must be like! With hope and humor, Ben engages the audience in mind and body through one man's journey to the other side.
  • Benjamin Fainstein:
    17 Aug. 2018
    I've had the pleasure of seeing Ben Rosenblatt read/perform this piece in an informal, no-tech setting, and even without design elements or a full audience, it sang. The text carves out theatrical territory living somewhere between intimate autobiography and a zoomed-out perspective providing informative and tender glimpses at the struggles and successes of people living with OCD. Rosenblatt presents heady clinical material in a wonderfully human way, and his play offers exciting opportunities to enact direct audience engagement, open dialogues about mental healthcare, and spend time in brains that may operate differently than our own--pure and personal theatre-making.
  • Franky D. Gonzalez:
    19 May. 2018
    For any performer taking this script on, it would be a tour-de-force performance and an unforgettable experience. Ben Rosenblatt writes with an honesty and charming wit that is both very honest and holds your attention throughout. The play covers OCD and its manifestations. Being a one-person show it can seem like a mountain to climb for a performer, but taking on this many characters, in its way seems to be Rosenblatt's way of inviting us the reader, and the performer to come inside the mind of someone who lives with OCD. Highly recommend. I want to see this play live.

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