Fresh Voices - This is why we can't have nice things

Guest Blogger: Liz Beck - Senior RMU

This is why we can’t have nice things!

            It’s a phrase I’ve used many times. Usually, I say it when I’ve embarrassed myself. Other times, I’ve said it in a fit of desperation, after I’ve just seen someone of my own generation doing or saying something incredibly stupid on the Internet. We can’t have nice things because this guy is an asshole. We can’t have nice things because, once again, the Millenials have taken man buns to an unprecedented extreme. We can’t have nice things because one guy thought it was okay to run for president and, well, here we are.

            Like I said, I’m a big fan of this phrase. So when I heard that this was the title of the latest venture at Off the Wall Theatre singularly starring Heidi Nagle, I was both extremely curious and excited. Finally, someone was going to dive into the same phenomenon I’ve been lamenting for years.

            It’s certainly an experience.

            The show opens with a short video in which we struggle along with Heidi down East Main Street and into Off the Wall. The haphazard arrival at the theatre sets a highly appropriate tone for what is to follow; This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things culminates in a portrait of Nagle, in which we experience both sketch comedy and autobiographical pieces, all centering on the question of the aforementioned unattainable nice things. A personal favorite of mine was Nagle’s playful rant about “hipsters” and the many things they seem to have ruined, which then morphs into an explanation (via a family photograph) of why Nagle’s father was the original hipster. The show is funny, but more importantly, it’s just smart. During the hour-long journey, we get several random elements that, when combined, just seem to work. There’s a classic embarrassing mom story. There is a sketch about the severely downplayed side effects of “wonder products.” There’s even a showing of Jurassic Park. But what This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things does best is that beneath the sketch comedy, it presents the common experience of living in today’s world, where our problems are truly not as large as we believe them to be, but things we can hold at arm’s length and admit are not so big.

            Before I saw the show, I was expecting to learn more about Heidi, and as with sketch comedy, I knew it was going to be funny. But I was also hoping for something that went a little bit beyond that, perhaps something that I could not only laugh at but also relate to.

            I was not disappointed.