Format: Live Performance, Audio
Genre: Rock Opera, Comedy-drama
Status: Development
Genre: Rock Opera, Comedy-drama
Status: Development
Summary:
When a fire destroys the cushy mental health facility where Johan Ghazali has been sent to recover from ongoing fits of depression, his days of plush robes, state-of-the-art fitness centers, professionally cooked gourmet food, and occasionally taking his vitals or medications all grind to a halt. Transferred to the "funny farm of funny farms," a facility named the Hayes Institute, Joe takes no joy in the hospital's well-earned reputation for bizarreness, nor does he relish steeling himself for his first day, where he is told he will be meeting his ward-mates, a self-identified crew of "adorable weirdos."
Cynical and selfish, Joe keeps to himself, until the admission of Callie, a strange girl with an even stranger cocktail of conditions, including palilalia (muttering a repeated phrase), which hinders her from making friends easily. When Joe's piano playing ability coaxes Callie our of her shell, the two begin a remarkable journey of cooperative healing, and find ways to get to know themselves and each other, while, for better or for worse, opening more than a few hearts, and minds, in the process.
In song and lyric, Continuity tells a story about the excruciating efficacy of deep self-inquiry, the excruciating inefficacy of prescriptive psychological therapies and the mental health facilities who espouse them, the damaging hypocrisy of the self-ascribed expert, and the healing power of song, story, and playing chopsticks together, with someone you love, every day.
When a fire destroys the cushy mental health facility where Johan Ghazali has been sent to recover from ongoing fits of depression, his days of plush robes, state-of-the-art fitness centers, professionally cooked gourmet food, and occasionally taking his vitals or medications all grind to a halt. Transferred to the "funny farm of funny farms," a facility named the Hayes Institute, Joe takes no joy in the hospital's well-earned reputation for bizarreness, nor does he relish steeling himself for his first day, where he is told he will be meeting his ward-mates, a self-identified crew of "adorable weirdos."
Cynical and selfish, Joe keeps to himself, until the admission of Callie, a strange girl with an even stranger cocktail of conditions, including palilalia (muttering a repeated phrase), which hinders her from making friends easily. When Joe's piano playing ability coaxes Callie our of her shell, the two begin a remarkable journey of cooperative healing, and find ways to get to know themselves and each other, while, for better or for worse, opening more than a few hearts, and minds, in the process.
In song and lyric, Continuity tells a story about the excruciating efficacy of deep self-inquiry, the excruciating inefficacy of prescriptive psychological therapies and the mental health facilities who espouse them, the damaging hypocrisy of the self-ascribed expert, and the healing power of song, story, and playing chopsticks together, with someone you love, every day.
Scars are scars; it doesn't matter whence they came. If someone fucked us up at some point, someone fucked us up. It... wasn't our fault.
- Normal Matt, Continuity
