Mullens 1

Darius Q. Mullens

Dr. Merrill

ENG107W-01

10/9/19

Human.

Aristotle created a set of rules for what makes a piece of theatre great. Tom Kitt and

Brian Yorkey’s N
​ ext to Normal​ adheres to these rules very well. It is constructed in a way

that very much mirrors Ancient Greek theatre. There is music, spectacle, character

development, and exploration of the human psyche. Above all, the most interesting

connections between this contemporary tale of pain and Ancient Greece lie in Yorkey’s use

of the Unity of Time, Place, and his emphasis on the thought behind the piece.

The Three Unities we a quintessential part of theatre for Aristotle, and usually, a

good piece of theatre adheres to at least one, if not two. ​Next to Normal​ loosely adheres to

two of the Unities: Time and Place. Aristotle’s rules can be stretched, however. The abstract

has no defined boundaries. Since this musical is so complex and contemporary, arguments

can be made for or against the Unities. Looking at the musical from a more abstract, “big

picture” perspective can help put its Aristotelian elements in a more flattering light.

Though it skips around in time a little bit, ​Next to Normal ​holds properties of the

Unity of Time. It is more or less through-composed, and the songs naturally flow into one

another. As a result, large chunks of the musical are happening in a shorter time frame. For

example: In Act I, time goes by and Dan begins to sing about how great he’s feeling and how

his family is nearing a point of normalcy (“It’s Gonna Be Good”). Immediately after, Diana
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comes out of the kitchen with a birthday cake that she made for her deceased son. Dan

attempts to coax her and remind her that their son died many years ago (“He’s Not Here”).

Diana tells Dan that he has no idea what she experiences every day, and that her mental

illness makes her life torture (“You Don’t Know”). Dan grows exasperated and questions if

Diana recognizes all that he has done for their family (“I Am the One”). Natalie takes her

boyfriend, Henry, up to her room, where she laments about being the forgotten child of her

family (“Superboy and the Invisible Girl”). All of these songs happen in rapid succession,

flowing from one song to the next. There are elements of realism in the action at this point

in the musical. The characters are having discoveries and the plot is progressing in real time.

Aristotle believed in the principle that the action of the play should take no longer than the

length of the performance itself.

Though there are minor ventures to other locations in the plot, one could make an

argument for the Unity of Place. The majority of the story takes place in one location, and

the story was written to be relatable to the audience. There is no set location for the plot; we

are never given a region or a state or even a town. The story is meant to be told in a way that

shows that mental illness can hit anyone, and life is all about how we deal with it and move

on. The action takes place everywhere and nowhere.

Next to Normal​ takes place in mostly one place: the Goodman household. Granted, at

times, the plot briefly ventures to Natalie’s school, or a psychopharmacologist’s office, or

even a nightclub. The main action- the juicy parts of the plot- all take place in their house.

The set was designed for necessity. The show doesn’t require huge set changes, if any. They

wanted to tell the story in a way where the set didn’t distract from the message and the
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narrative. The original Broadway set had levels and a generally industrial look that proved

itself to be versatile for storytelling:

Posted to Broadway.com on the “Next to

Normal Set” message board by

TheatreFreak05

The lower level serves as the kitchen/living room of the house. The middle level functions as

bedrooms and a practice room/performance venue for Natalie and Henry. The upper level is

rarely utilized in the show, but the set as a whole is often used as a sort of nebulous space.

Gabe (who is the ghost of Diana and Dan’s dead son and the physical manifestation of their

depression) uses the entire playing space for songs like “I’m Alive” and “Make Up Your

Mind/Catch Me I’m Falling.”

Aristotle wanted a good piece of theatre to have a heavy emphasis on the message of

a piece; the ​thought b

​ ehind it. Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey had a sort of Brechtian approach

toward the construction of their piece. They wanted to make a piece that not only had an

interesting story, but a message that resonated with the audience, raised awareness, and

called for change. They did an extensive amount of research about bipolar depressive

disorder and its effects on its victims. In an interview with Steve Paikin, Brian Yorkey says
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that he wrote the show in a way that allows the audience to experience the confusion and

frustration of discovering mental illness. He made the given circumstances seem normal and

then gave the audience small clues that allowed t​ hem​ to feel the discomfort and worry about

the uncertainty of undiagnosed psychiatric conditions.

An overlooked part of ​Next to Normal​ is the way it presents the pharmaceutical and

psychiatric businesses. As the narrative progresses, Diana is shown to have frequent meetings

with a psychopharmacologist. In the earlier meetings, she was given various different

medications in a very “trial-and-error”-style process. One of the songs ends with the doctor

asking her how she has been feeling with her medication and she responds with “nothing,”

to which he replies (while scribbling on his clipboard): “patient is stable” (Yorkey 16). This is

a demonstration of the lackadaisical attitude of the psychopharmaceutical industry toward

its patients. Eventually, though, Diana gets a new doctor and he is shown to be more serious

and honest about his care of her. The challenge now lies with a doctor who simply doesn’t

know how to solve the problem, as often is the case with mental illness (​Agenda​).

Toward the end of Act II, the show takes it a step further and poses the question:

“What happens if the medicine was never really in control? What happens if the cut, the

burn, the break was never in my brain or in my blood, but in my soul” (Yorkey 88). Diana

may have bipolar depressive disorder with a delusional component, but she is also a grieving

mother. N
​ ext to Normal​ may not have crazy choreography or a huge cast, but it gets its

message across more clearly than most of the really flashy shows. Diana’s son’s death was the

inciting incident for this action, even though it takes place sixteen years after. Every

character is grieving something and struggling to break through some kind of wall and find
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their peace. Natalie is fighting hormones and neglect and drug abuse and her own mental

blocks that prevent her from allowing herself to be loved. Dan is fighting insecurity and

denial of his own mental issues. Diana is fighting grief a​ nd​ delusional episodes a​ nd​ the

psychopharmaceutical business ​and ​ the everyday struggles of being alive.

Aristotle’s criteria for good theatre opens up the floor to discourse. Bertolt Brecht had

the same idea. Apparently, so did Brian Yorkey. There is always a lesson to be learned; always

a conversation to be had. The through-line for N

​ ext to Normal​ is their struggle. The

connecting thread between each character and between the characters and the audience

members is their suffering. The musical concludes with a song called “Light.” It’s about how

when we hurt, and when we feel things that are negative, it’s worth it to be feeling

something​. And it makes the positive emotions and more favorable feelings that much

brighter. In the beginning of the song, Natalie sings: “Give me pain if that’s what’s real; it’s

the price we pay to feel” (Yorkey 94). Doctor Madden follows up with: “the price of love is

loss, but still we pay; we love anyway” (Yorkey 94). After all of the events in the musical, the

audience comes to the end and are left with this message, these words repeated over and

over again: “there will be light.” The uncertainty of life is unavoidable and inexplicable. But

that is the case for everybody and we, as people, have to find a way to go on. We can sit and

wallow in the dark, or we can step into the light.

As centuries become millennia and Greek theatre becomes Broadway, one thing

never changes: humanity. Humans are flawed. We bleed, we cry, we dream, but the thing

that everyone has in common is suffering. We all suffer. Every single day. Oedipus suffered.

Diana Goodman suffered. The Greeks knew it. Aristotle knew it. I know it. You know it. Tom
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Kitt and Brian Yorkey knew it when they wrote ​Next to Normal.​ It’s the same story set to a

different tune. Aristotle took the essence of humanity and summarized the relatable nature

of theatre when he wrote ​Poetics​. For that, the theatre is grateful. We never stop learning or

growing, and theatre teaches us valuable life lessons without us even knowing it. Aristotle

may have been able to make a list of criteria for what makes art “good” or “bad,” but the only

question that really matters is:

Is it human?