A genuinely touching show about pregnancy, hidden behind sitcom marketing.
The biggest issue I can take with Eden Sher’s I Was on a Sitcom is in the title. This is not a show just about being on a sitcom. This is a beautiful, hilarious, and moving show about the potential trauma of complications with pregnancy and postnatal depression.
Maybe that’s not entirely fair, the first five or so minutes of the show address her stardom on American network sitcom The Middle. Here she recites quotes from her character and gives anecdotes about being mistaken for her own fictional identity in public, and they are by far the weakest segment of the show. There is an overreliance here on being recognised above content, which is a shame when the rest of the hour is so wonderfully put together.
Her tale of being pregnant with significantly premature twins, and the subsequent birth is gripping and genuinely very funny. The broad facial range required for sitcom acting here gives emphasis to punchlines, lending big laughs to even a single word. The movement of the piece sometimes falls into somewhat cliche one person show physical theatre (this is certainly solo theatre, not stand up), but the emotion behind the piece, and the joy Sher is taking from performing it are obvious. At one point, she apologises to the audience for crying at the wrong moment and, whether staged or not, lends a weight and a feeling of reality to the piece.
If this all sounds massively worthy, it is not to suggest that this isn’t a massively funny piece. The timing on punchlines, and the occasional surreal turn of phrase are used wonderfully here. This is a show well worth watching, even if you have never seen the sitcom the marketing is based on.