Generic Hospital

“Hey Mom, I forgot to tell you, I have to go to a professional Improv show for my class, before Thursday.”

Ali is taking a theatre class at Portland State University this summer. It ends this coming week. She uttered the words above Friday (yesterday) lunchtime.

So that’s how I ended up at The Brody Theater‘s preview production of “Generic Hospital” last night.

Here’s the gist of the show: The scene is a place called Generic Hospital, and the nine or so characters who work there make up most of the dialogue as they go. Friday was the preview night; the show continues tonight and for the next two Saturdays, with new content and story development using the same characters and site each performance. At the beginning, the audience is asked to provide the theme (it’s improv, after all). Yesterday, after asking for a noun, a verb, and an adjective, the title became “Spicy Fruity Pebbles running rampant”. They didn’t develop the “spicy” theme too much, but whoever makes Fruity Pebbles should be paying sponsorship fees to these actors. The story they developed: The evil hospital administrator, Hiram Gorn, ordered all patients to be force-fed the cereal four times a day. Chief Nursing Officer Linda, torn between her reputation, retirement prospects, and “I used to care”, complied. And the patients turned into zombies from sugar overload, and were only saved by being tasered by Generic Hospital’s head of security – who then worried about “all the paperwork” and called a meeting of top administrators to brainstorm what to do about the theft of two packages of cotton balls.

All this was funny enough – surely not everyone else in the audience was employed at a hospital, yet many laughed even more than I did. But the part that made it totally hilarious for me, is that “Generic Hospital” has a tram. A tram that goes east and west, for a short ride between the hospital and parking. Tram operator Sandy is a key character in the performance. Perhaps her most memorable line was distracting a zombie with “Oh, look down there, people are sunbathing naked”. And obviously, since Generic Hospital has a tram, and we all know we’re the only place in the country lucky enough to have a tram serving our university hospital, it isn’t too much of a stretch to relate all the dialogue to OHSU. Especially when they got to the meeting about the cotton ball theft. I kid you not, OHSU keeps the cotton balls, toothpaste, and other such supplies behind password-coded locks.

Add to this the fact that The Brody Theater is now located in a neighborhood building that looks like a church, right on Gibbs, the street over which the tram runs, and the whole experience is intriguing. Especially if you happen to work at OHSU, care about the city’s $11.9 expenditure on the tram, and/or ever enjoyed “Whose line is it, anyway?”

The Oregonian liked The Brody Theater’s last production. I wonder if they’ll print a favorable review of Generic Hospital with its non-generic tram.

There’s a show tonight, starting at 9 p.m. and ending around 10:15 (finishing time included for those like me concerned about getting our full quota of sleep, even on weekends). The theater is at 3314 SW 1st, off Barbur Boulevard by Gibbs or Whitaker, with the entrance on Gibbs. It’s a small place, and if you get there early you may be able to snag the comfy sofa seats. The last two shows are on August 18 and 25, if you can’t make it tonight. Admission is $10, $7 for students. Well worth it, in my opinion.