How to Fake a Clinical Depression

You know you’re into something good from the very first moments of the performance of this work. Steven Marrocco has a likeable, unassuming presence, like an old friend or your favorite old hound. He is, however, completely in control of the evening. His voice is resonant and expressive, a small tilt of the head carries a subtle but provocative meaning and the entire performance is crisply coordinated but still relaxed. Marrocco stays in the same moment as the audience, which doesn’t mind eating from the palm of his hand.

How to Fake a Clinical Depression was directed with a very deft touch by Shulie Cowan, who teaches at Second City Los Angeles. Autobiographical in nature, it’s an apt vehicle for Marrocco’s sense of humor and his considerable acting talents. After receiving a degree in acting from New York University, he returned to L.A., eventually winding up in a tanning salon between more promising gigs.

In need of money and a new bass guitar — he is also an accomplished musician — Marrocco comes across an ad for a clinical depression study on Craigslist. This is the beginning of his tale of woe at the hands of Glaxo Smith Klein, or “Big Pharma,” as he calls the drug companies that are currently the biggest pill pushers in history. He decides to answer the ad and is called in for “Depression Study. Day One. The Audition.”

This is where we meet Danielle, the generously endowed drug company assistant with whom Marrocco is immediately smitten. He does a sultry walk to introduce us to Danielle. The walk is evocatively suggestive in several of the right places, but it doesn’t try to duplicate Danielle — a small thing, but one in a series of right choices.

Marrocco has a 20-minute interview with Dr. Monjak, an interview that all too easily determines his fate as a clinically depressed subject. He differentiates between these two characters quickly, cleanly and comically, without ever sacrificing the reality of his inner misgivings. He is, of course, faking depression to get the financial reward. Nevertheless, he agrees to begin taking a combination of Prozac (an anti-depressant) and Zyprexa (an anti-psychotic used for schizophrenia).

Marrocco says he always has disaster movies playing in his head, a way of working through his natural anxiety. The films no longer work for him because of the drugs. He begins to feel a general numbness and is no longer able to cry — a bad sign for an actor. Four weeks into the study, he experiences the “minor” side effects of nightmares, excessive gas and impotence. Dr. Monjak doubles Marrocco’s dosage and takes off for a weekend with Danielle.

You get the drift. What began as an acting job turned into a personal nightmare, all due to a very dangerous combination of drugs from a doctor. And Big Pharma. It’s alternately frightening and hilarious to witness the actor interpreting his own grim experience. The performance is never less than highly entertaining and emotionally engaging, and it’s nice to see the big drug companies getting theirs in the end. Grade: A

— Mark Sterner