"Placebo"
by Melissa James Gibson
A contemporary comedy of academia
directed by Susanna Rinehart

In this sharply funny and knowing portrait of human relationships and the agonies of academia, Louise is a doctoral candidate working on a placebo-controlled study of a new drug to enhance female sex drive; her partner Jonathan is a Classics scholar struggling to complete his dissertation on Pliny the Elder; Mary, a participant in Louise’s study, is desperate to right the ship of her marriage; and fellow researcher Tom is questioning the value of studying aural stimulation.

Gibson gives us a compelling and hilarious exploration of our search for purpose versus subsistence, of desire versus self-doubt, and the stories we tell ourselves as we are “stalking happiness with a machete.”

Read Contemporary comedy puts Ph.D. students center stage.