Experimental theater and physical comedy are not everyone’s cup of tea—certainly not mine—so I was delightfully surprised at how much I enjoyed Chuck Harper’s Whammy! The Seven Secrets to a Sane Self. The audience enters a black box theater and sees a circle of six white chairs. Self-help books adorn the edges of the stage. A man with a Karl Marx beard, carrying a suitcase of bric-a-brac, philosophizes as dancers in asylum-style white surround him. A mash-up of sounds is heard. The engaging and enthusiastic performers use movement to illustrate topics that can be difficult to discuss: failure, depression, sexuality, suicide. This piece truly had me nearly in tears and laughing out loud moments later; it also left me thinking about the nature of psychology. Warning: The show contains a banana orgy. Don’t worry about what that means.—Amelia Bienstock
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