While work on actual productions has slowed my reading down considerably, I haven’t abandoned reading plays so much as I have much less to say about them, and less time in which to say it. So as a way to clear the slate I’m going to temporarily abandon my usual format and focus in on what I find interesting about each work.

I was excited to find Love/Sick by John Cariani at the library: Cariani wrote the enduring community staple Almost, Maine, and this is a follow-up of sorts: a sketch show (sorry, “short play collection”) about love, but from a decidedly destructive POV. Almost, Maine didn’t lack heartbreak, but Love/Sick has no joy to be found.

In fact, one could describe Love/Sick as a collection of scenes about the moment when a couple realizes it needs to break apart and how there is no shame in that. Some people may recognize this as the description of the show I just wrote and produced Start Your Endings. So yes I found this play with excitement, but I also was concerned.

Photo from Sacramento College Production

Luckily, the sketches are extraordinarily dissimilar: Cariani prefers to find a single dominant image or action and build out the scene from there giving each scene a gimmick (a word I use without judgement). While Cariani’s characters are in pain, and rarely want to leave the stable relationships they’re in, I felt a little too voyeuristic while reading: as though I and Cariani were taking too much glee at seeing what was unfolding onstage.

While I’d likely only look to produce Love/Sick if I felt that Almost, Maine had been done too recently, I always applaud the development of more sketch comedy shows masquerading as something else and am glad this show exists.