Born Normal

By Paul Gillis

"Born Normal", at the Source Theatre, is the story of a very unconventional family. But they're unconventional by birth, not by choice. In many ways, they're dysfunctional, but it's largely because in so many ways they're hyper-functional.

The story really centers on the mother, who is born with white-feathered wings, the only such person in history. (The production does not actually equip her with strap-on wings. They are only suggested.) Her parents immediately capitalize on her unique endowment, turning her into a media sensation. Of course she grows up spoiled, and more self-centered than anyone would think possible.


Her more conventional female endowments also prove to be spectacular, and she eventually moves from the pages of the National Enquirer to those of Playboy. She falls in love with the Playboy photographer & they marry, eventually having three children.

The whole story is narrated by the younger of her two daughters. She suffers from middle-child syndrome in the worst way. Both of her siblings have extraordinary powers, while she is completely normal. Her sister can raise small animals from the dead. And her baby brother is born talking, not merely in complete sentences, but expressing the most carefully-reasoned opinions with the vocabulary of an Oxford don. (But he still poops in his pants.)

As the brother grows, his amazing articulateness fades away. But eventually it is replaced by a gift of more dubious value. He is able to remember, in his own thoughts, things that the people around him have forgotten.

Eventually, a fourth child is born, who literally glows with a warm light. But he dies in infancy. His sister's powers of revival prove useless on the baby, which casts her into a long depression.

Eventually, the mother loses her wings. She is utterly bereft, having tied up her whole identity in her unique gift. Her two children continue to use their own gifts, restoring dead pets to life and retrieving the memories of the senile. But these gifts seem to be slowly fading as well.

There are still two performances of "Born Normal" at the Source, Saturday the 26th at 5 and Sunday the 27th at 6:30.

For more pictures, go to my photo website.