An attempt­ed sui­cide is an unlike­ly premise for a com­e­dy, but this pro­duc­tion most­ly works.

For max­i­mum comedic effect, though, a pro­duc­tion needs to move quick­ly enough to stop the audi­ence from dwelling on the dark side, and this pro­duc­tion moved too slow­ly for my taste. Part of the rea­son for the lack of ener­gy is the rel­a­tive­ly sta­t­ic direc­tion, and part is the wordi­ness of the text. Too often char­ac­ters gave speech­es instead of inter­act­ing with the oth­er char­ac­ters. The script’s strength lies in the web of cir­cum­stance that brings six char­ac­ters togeth­er, and the comedic sparks that fly when those char­ac­ters inter­act with oth­er char­ac­ters’ oppos­ing desires.

Anoth­er thing that helped the pro­duc­tion was the actors’ com­mit­ment to their char­ac­ters. The char­ac­ters are all nec­es­sar­i­ly on the edges of nor­mal­cy, but the actors pre­sent­ed the human­i­ty behind their char­ac­ters’ extreme situations.