Some playwrights use peculiar experiences to stoke their art. Yet I'd conjecture that few have been through anything like Stephen O'Rourke's experience working with the mentally ill for the last 18 years. The Longest Running Joke of the 20th Century — perhaps not the right phrase for this monologue — is a talented effort, well delivered by the playwright, to work through the conflicting feelings he's developed for his day job as well as for a playwriting career too often put on hold.
O'Rourke eagerly and entertainingly conveys the delights and frustrations that accompany his daily tasks. There's Leonard, for example, whose grandiosity and delusions O'Rourke portrays with a wonderfully ennui-riddled accent. There's much sadness as O'Rourke recollects the fate of a legally blind woman who disappears and a man so tortured by imaginary voices that he nearly stabs himself to death. There's a lot of information about drugs and diagnoses too.
As his stories fly by, you begin to wonder about all the plays O'Rourke hasn't written, all the productions he hasn't had mounted. One anecdote — about his musical being accepted into the New York Musical Theatre Festival at the expense of his day job — is heartbreaking. Yet his new job is much the same as his old one, and he does make us understand that while he may have regrets, there's also gratification in knowing how patients are dependent on him for a dollop of stability in their chemically walloped world.
O'Rourke and director Jackman Draper might tighten the piece, for it does meander. Clearly, though, the playwright has the raw material for one hell of a story.
Presented by the Courthouse Repertory Company as part of the New York International Fringe Festival at the Players Loft, 115 MacDougal St., 3rd floor, NYC. Aug. 13-20. Remaining performances: Thu., Aug. 14, 3:45 p.m.; Fri., Aug. 15, 8:45 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 16, 4:45 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 17, 2:45 p.m.; Mon., Aug. 18, 8:45 p.m.; Wed., Aug. 20, 5 p.m. (212) 279-4488 or (866) 468-7619.