The Cure Ate Her at The Actors Company

Step into an absurd art museum for a tour with your inept curator, played by Molly McLean.

The curator has both the confident idiocy of Philomena Cunk and the slapstick tendencies of Mr. Bean. Her purpose in life is analyzing everything and knowing everything. She fails to teach anyone anything, though she tries and tries. The curator takes the audience on a splendidly surreal tour through ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary art.

The jokes come a mile-a-minute from McLean’s physicality, jokes, and projected images. In each exhibit room, McLean has different jokes that reflect the way we think, or don’t, about art. She parodies the intensity of people’s work, their ego, and the way we think about history.

Molly McLean is a performer, writer, and director. She performs monthly at UCB as part of their Betty solo character team. Her new play, Karaoke Night, will debut at the Elysian Theater’s Spaghetti Festival this July. This is her second solo show, after her lip-sync show Made Up! in 2025.

Simon J.O. Martin is a queer director-playwright based in Los Angeles. Their wicked, irreverent works have been presented at The Elysian, 24 Hour Plays, The Road, The Larking House, and New Village Arts. Selected directing credits: Nosferatu's Sweet 16 with Freak Nature Puppets (The Elysian), These Six Sea Sponges..., The Second Best School Shooting (Indie Production), and their play Weirdo, or (make nice) [The Larking House].

This solo show parodies professionals’ struggles to communicate to laypeople through physical and verbal gags. “As a teacher, artist, and stan, I find talking about art difficult and silly. I wrote this play to make fun of that,” McLean writes.