Do you sometimes hate your job? Do you love “love,” even when it breaks the rules? Do you sometimes seek to medicate those personal problems that your heart or mind can’t seem to liberate? Do you need a good laugh, maybe even a knee-slapping, inappropriate belly chuckle to kick off your 2025?
RX by Kate Fodor is a wondrously wacky rom-com, deftly directed by local thespian stalwart Jordyn Strilecky, kicking off a new year of edgy and exciting theater at your Cookeville Performing Arts Center (CPAC). Strilecky has cast a veteran crew of Cookeville performers to bring this silly and salacious play to full life, to warm up the coldest January night. Viewers willing to suspend their biases from the daily drudge of their own daily lives, and open-minded to see some R-rated adult content, will absolutely adore this show. Beneath the bonkers interactions and nonstop laugh lines, we will welcome the not-so-subtle social critique of corporate workplace culture generally and journalism and the pharmaceutical industry specifically.
From the opening curtain to the curtain call, the entire play delivers nonstop love and laughs. But love is an antidote to anxiety, workplace depression, and dollops of negative self-talk. And the laughter castigates the medical profession, big pharma, and the dying field of journalism. Don’t even get me started on what the show says about people who pursue poetry as a professional option (said the professional poet)!
The tight ensemble cast are all sympathetic. They have us in their corner from the get go and even the potential corporate villains are too sweet and funny to elicit much ire. Emily Amonett as the lead character Meena brings a bold bundle of contradictory feelings and vulnerable gestures. Completely and utterly mind-blowing as the doctor Phil (not to be confused with other doctors named Phil), leading the practical research-side of a drug study, is Kevin O’Connor, whose understated nerdy romantic portrayal will linger in your mind long after you leave the show.
When we meet Cookeville newcomer Jaime Williams as the corporate shill Allison, we know that this is the character we are usually supposed to hate, but she is simply too hilarious, even if we are skeptical about what she is selling. And thanks to Fodor’s fun writing, the play has no real enemies. Even Ryan Steele, as both a marketing guru and a mad scientist, is gratifying and gregarious. Matt Wilson, as Meeena’s boss Simon, turns the main romance into a love triangle and offers a chummy counterpoint to Meena's workplace malaise. Stealing some heart-tugging emotional surprises and utterly flooring us with her relatability is Holly Mills as Frances. Her scenes with Meena in the older women’s underwear section at a department store make it impossible to feel even remotely cynical about this show. Frances is simply humble and phenomenal. If the scandalous love arc doesn’t get you all-up-in-the-feels, this female friendship between Meena and Frances will.
“Backstage” shows at CPAC already feel intimate because of the close rows of seats, set-up right on the stage. There’s no hiding in the back row, like at your niece’s dance recital. This particularly juicy play and these truly brave performances take that intimacy to a next level. Let this reviewer be frank: maybe see this show with a same- gender-best friend or your lifelong spouse, but not with someone new, that you just met online, not for a first date. Okay, try the latter if you are as bold as Meena, but this reviewer has warned you!
CPAC’s production of FX is an energizing escape from any anxiety you might have about the new year. It may not fix your workplace woes, but it will make you forget about them for a titillating two hours.
-Andrew William Smith
SHOW DATES:
January 10/11/14/16/27/18 at 7:30pm
January 12 at 2pm
LOCATION:
Cookeville Performing Arts Center
(10 E Broad Street, Cookeville)
TICKETS:
online- CPACTN.COM
phone- (931) 528-1313
in person- Mon-Fri between 9am-5pm
Andrew William Smith is a local college teacher, DJ, activist, blogger, and poet who has been reviewing theater in Cookeville for almost 20 years.
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