[sic]

By Melissa James Gibson

Directed by Susan E. Evans

at the Eureka Theatre
215 Jackson, San Francisco

September 25-October 19, 2003

In the world of [sic] dwell three apartment-house neighbors in close proximity, engaged in a quirky ménage à trois. Thirty-something, neurotic, these urbanites try to connect with each other, or with anyone or anything in the world, as their physical and mental spaces impinge and collide. There's Theo, a composer commissioned to write a theme for an amusement park ride called the Thrill-o-rama; Babette, a writer whose central premise for her great work is that the history of the world can be told as a series of consequential tantrums; and Frank, a gay man preparing through a home-study audio course to be an auctioneer. In this limbo state they talk, and eat Chinese takeout, make shadow puppets and vacuum.

Gibson demonstrates a striking command of language, sound and tempo. Her characters overlap lines, or speak in unison or repeat whole phrases; there are odd line breaks in the text, internal capitalization, and a complete dearth of punctuation. As for the play's title, Gibson explains:
"Sic, of course is a Latin term that appears in writing, as a signal to the reader that an apparent mistake is in fact an accurate citation. This notion of distancing oneself from responsibility informs the three main characters of the play, who exist at arm's length from their own situations, as if their real lives were yet to be inhabited."