Rachel Kaly wants you to know she isn’t well, and over the course of her solo show, Hospital Hour, she makes a convincing case. Kaly has good reason for the 300 hospital visits, primarily related to her mental health. And if you share her particular brand of humor, the 70-minute trauma trip down memory lane is utterly compelling, laugh-out-loud, and uncomfortably familiar.
Kaly flips back and forth between the micro-manifestations of obsessive-compulsive and borderline personality disorders. She’d like to board planes before pregnant women, for instance, because she considers herself a veteran for “fighting the war on terror” as a child witness to 9/11.
And then there’s the pedophilia.
Behind the hospital-blue curtain
Kaly spends much of Hospital Hour focusing on her father, a Jewish Moroccan immigrant with erratic mood swings. She documents his behavior in a series of email exchanges, methodically drawing back a heavyweight hospital-blue curtain to reveal a large flat-screen TV. Using a presentation remote, Kaly clicks through the tense father-daughter correspondence, which plays out like a Wheel of Fortune puzzle reveal if you were loopy on a combination of Klonopin and lithium.
With only one computer for the family and divorce proceedings already underway requiring separate communications, it was probably only a matter of time before Kaly’s mother discovered what she describes as hours of child pornography on her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s files.
“You guys gotta get on board, okay?” Kaly tells the audience. “This is the bulk of the show now.”
If you’ve recently been to The Culture Club, Hospital Hour is playing in the same space as the Heated Rivalry parody musical, a campy gay sports fantasia. Kaly, too, has sexual fantasies, but they usually involve providing oral sex to form male attachments. “I learned from my dad that the way to do this was to guess and anticipate his needs so that he wouldn’t leave,” she says, “and I started doing that in all my relationships.”
The dichotomy of the two shows playing simultaneously feels like crawling inside Kaly’s head. It’s a wild place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to stay indefinitely.
Editor’s note: This production depicts themes including suicide, suicidal ideation, self-harm, anxiety, depression, and other content that may not be suitable for sensitive audiences. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or chat at 988lifeline.org. Help is available 24/7.
Is ‘Hospital Hour’ worth seeing?
Rachel Kaly turns a lifetime of intake forms into a fearless, squirm-inducing hour of comedy that rewards anyone who shares her bedside manner and earns every uncomfortable laugh.
- The Culture Club, 530 West 27th Street, New York City
- Starring: Rachel Kaly
- Running time: approximately 70 minutes, no intermission
- Performances through November 23
