Elling

It wasn't quite what I expected, as the promotional material had used the expression, "laugh-wrenching hit comedy".   Well, no.  True, there were some funny bits (one segment seemed to be more designed to inject some humour than to contribute to the story), but a better description of MTC's production of Elling might be "quirky".  It's all about two mentally ill Norwegians who are provided with a flat to live in, so that they can adapt to living "normal" lives.

The play explores, in a fairly light-hearted way, the issues that they are faced with and how each of them responds to these.  I guess it also acknowledges that we each have different views as to just what is "normal".   The set is quite interesting - steps, windows and skylights appear as the play progresses, and it all becomes a bigger mess as the characters become more "normal".

As I have found with a couple of other recent plays, I wasn't too sure about this play for much of the first half.   Obviously, it's a bit "different", and dealing with mental disabilities is challenging, although here it's handled pretty gently.   But by the end, I was fine with it.