pay attention

“Pay Attention: ADHD in Hollywood, On the Rocks with a Twist” is written and performed by Frank South.

BITTER
Performance is an effective tool for healing, and while this show is honest and includes the witty self-deprication that is often the engine of this kind of work, South’s muddy performance is hard to parse. At 130 minutes with no intermission it is an ordeal, and I suspect that there are times when South succumbs to his ADHD, loses focus, and repeats sections of the script.
D. Jette – LA Theatre Review

BITTERSWEET
“Pay Attention” is a grim tale, discomfiting and tension-filled and not easy to sit through. But as South notes in conclusion, “We are all inventing our lives as we live them.” His life has been as inventive as can be expected from someone with his challenges. One can only hope there is a light bulb at the end of his tunnel.
Cynthia Citron – Reviewplays

SWEET
It took me part of the early moments to get into the story, which at two hours is long for a one-person show, but as the show continued it became increasingly entertaining and insightful; a compelling storytelling done in an energetic style.
Trish Ostroski – Tolucan Times

SWEET
Despite the humor, and possibly because of the honesty in the telling of his story, South’s journey to recovery may trouble some people. It’s hard not to recognize some symptoms of attention deficit in all of our own lives, what with the crazy world that exists today. If Pay Attention occasionally induces feelings of pain, that may be one of its virtues.
Lynne Bronstein – Santa Monica Mirror

SWEET
South’s narrative trajectory drifts through time, frequently echoing the disjointed thought processes of someone with ADHD. Although the piece could stand cutting, and some of South’s digressions play as a prosaic laundry list chronology, director Mark Travis’ deceptively unobtrusive staging crafts an intimacy that gradually leaves us feeling we know the star personally. As an actor, South’s sometimes-halting line readings and stammering delivery are at first hard to penetrate; but, with his jowelly hangdog face and mildly Mephistophelean grin, he’s immediately likable, and the absolute authenticity and immediacy of the performance are striking.
Paul Birchall – Backstage

SWEET
At times struggling for lines and almost forgetting the name of an actress with whom he worked, South overcomes these dilemmas to deliver a funny and bittersweet tale of someone who, while not conquering them, has at least been able to keep his demons in check.
Martin Hernandez – LA Weekly