Next to Normal

Next To Normal is a magnificent Broadway show based on a woman with a mental illness. Diana is in her thirties or forties, lives with her husband, daughter Natalie and her dead son Gabe. Diana looses control over the course of the show as in the beginning of act 1 she starts off singing and making many sandwiches in the floor. Her husband questions himself by singing a song “who’s crazy” while she’s in the doctors office. Act one is based on Diana’s behavior, how she acts with certain things. She is the only one who is able to see her son Gabe. Gabe is Diana’s son that died at a young age and she can’t seem to let him go. In act one Diana sees two doctors, which the first one is physcopharmacologist who prescribes her many medicine that only make her feel worse. The second doctor helps Diana find her traumas that are affecting her by making her feel bad. Natalie (Diana’s) daughter meet this boy Henry while she plays the piano, after many encounters he admits he is in love with her. Towards the end of act one Dr. Madden suggest Diana to do ECT (Electro compulsive treatment), which will help her feel better. She finally agrees and they start on the process right away.

            Act two starts off by Diana’s ECT procedure claiming how well she feels. Natalie disagrees and makes a comment on how she would not allow anyone to mess with her head. When Diana is sent home there is a conflict where she cant remember who Natalie is and where she lives. Natalie’s feels sad, upset and frustrated leading her to decided to let henry go because she can’t deal with all the mess that is going on. Dan goes to the Dr. Madden’s office saying how Diana can’t remember anything. Dr. Madden comments on how it is a little normal for patients to feel that way and that over time she will recover her lost memory. Diana forgets about her dead son, until she sees a music box her son leave for her to see. Suddenly she starts to processes her lost memory remembering how her son died of an intestinal problem at eight months old. She starts to realize how she has been ignoring Natalie and Dan faces off a sort of depressing asking Dr. Madden for help. Act two ends off by all the characters singing a line that says “finding the ways of things, they know that the darkest skies will one day see the sun” ending the play with the song light.

            What stood out for me in this show was Diana’s character. Her bipolar disorder in the show seemed to be better than a usual bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorders tend to have mood changes but most of the time there person is sad. Her character showed more of a happy side even though she had her sad moments when she will think about Gabe. Another thing that stood out was that she was willing to go ask for help because she wanted to feel normal; in most cases these people loose control and don’t seek help. I can say that this text showed a good side about her bipolar and how it didn’t affect her much then what a bipolar disorder is really considered.

            Having taken a phycology class and learning about the metal illnesses, bipolar disorder is one the most affect metal disorder that destructs peoples lives. People suddenly live in a world where it doesn’t necessary exact in the human world. I think that every one should be well aware of these consequences because it can affect anyone and the sooner we know about it the better it is for us to prevent it and instead ask for help when we feel like life has become a brick of walls.

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