Jonathan Raymond Popp
Tom Kastle personifies pharmaceuticals, tempting Eliza (Elena Espana-Regan).
For its 10th anniversary, the Kathie Rasmussen Women’s Theatre is rebooting a play that’s both sobering and amusing, calling attention to the people who have the most trouble paying, well, attention.
Shiny Things, which runs May 3-18 at the Bartell Theatre, is written and directed by Heather Renken, former artistic director of Broom Street Theater, where the play premiered in 2008. The story’s main character, Eliza (played by Elena Espana-Regan), is a sculptor who believes her attention deficit disorder (ADD) to be both a gift for her creativity and a stumbling block. She’s worried that her scattered focus will compromise her relationships and seeks help from a psychiatrist (Niall Spooner-Harvey), who prescribes questionable medication that forces Eliza to choose between her imagination and ambition.
“She actually reminds me a lot of my mom, and also my brother, who has ADD,” says Espana-Regan, a bubbly and curly-haired creative, much like her character. “But Eliza’s struggle to be recognized as valuable even though she’s not following the typical script to life — in that way I feel a connection with her.”
Renken’s play presents a complicated vision of ADD. “It’s not enjoyable when those flights of fancy distance you from people that you care about or people you need to be connecting with because of a job or school situation,” says Renken. “But aside from that, experiencing ADD can actually be really fun and beautiful.”
Renken herself was diagnosed with ADD at age 30. She says that the play, originally written seven years after her diagnosis, is not only a representation of what having ADD can be like for a person, but is proof of the beauty that can sprout from the mind of someone who calls this “disorder” a friend.
“My understanding of my journey of having this disorder is different from when I originally wrote the play,” says Renken, who has added and adjusted some scenes from Shiny Things for this new production. “I now know that I don’t have to fit a certain mold someone else has made for me. I can make choices that allow me to live the life that I want without compromising the person that I am.”
With scenes of classroom parades, restaurant musical numbers and spontaneous limbo lines, Renken let her imagination run wild in this production. The back-to-back vaudeville performances, Renken says, are meant to show audiences what it’s like to have ADD, when people never know “what’s going to happen next.”
The disorder itself is personified in Shiny Things as a silent, baggy-pants comedian named Kirit, played by choreographer Heidi Hakseth. Eliza's subconscious is also represented in the play as matinee idol Mae West, played by Andrew Miller-Rhoads.
“I hope audiences come away from this play understanding how complicated it is for people with ADD to decide how to go about treating it,” says Hakseth. “People may be surprised that their views of treatment are shaken up a bit.”
Shiny Things is neither an anti-medication screed, nor a play-by-play of Renken’s personal story. “There are some things we do that just make us human, and then there are the things that really keep us from living a productive life,” says Renken. “This play helps people distinguish between the two and, hopefully, become more accepting of those who don’t necessarily fit in.”
[Editor's note: This article was corrected to reflect the fact that Eliza's subconscious is represented by Mae West; another character embodies medication.]
