... And They're Off!

September, 2006

"Idiotic… ridiculousness?"

"Idiopathic radical company?"

"Idio… radicular…huh?"

Even the lovely woman at the Fringe box office check-in table, after trying in vain to locate our artist welcome information, finally surrendered and pleaded, "can you PLEASE JUST SPELL IT FOR ME?!"

Welcome to The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, or IRC, for ease of communication.

In one of my many incarnations over the past 15 years, as I've attempted to cobble together a living in this business, I worked as a Standardized Patient (recall the Seinfeld episode where Kramer feigned illness for a paycheck?) portraying a sick person for 4th year medical students in testing and teaching environments. One day, a well-meaning student offered "Idiopathic Radiculopathy" as the cause of my malaise. He added, "Which basically means there is no known cause of origin for your problem."

So many syllables, so little communication.

It seemed a suitable name for a theater group presenting absurdist plays illustrating how language can be a vehicle for stereotyped, meaningless exchanges, and how it is often insufficient at expressing the essence of the human experience.

Thanks for visiting us. We hope to see you as we continue exploring the Theater of the Absurd in the months and years to come.

Tina Brock
Artistic Director

info@idiopathicridiculopathyconsortium.com