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Giant Invisible Robot is the story of a boy and his giant invisible robot. Or, perhaps, it’s a story about mental illness and the acceptance of those different from us. Through a series of short, sketch-like segments, we’re shown various points in the life of this boy and the man he becomes.

If you take it on its premise as a simple story about a boy and his robot, it’s a fun time. The sketches are funny and the story amusing, though not exactly meaty. Jayson McDonald does very good voices, differentiates characters really well, and is a very physically funny actor. There’s also a great sketch where we hear an inner monologue from the invisible robot itself where Jayson makes really effective use of props and darkness to make a very convincing, but also very simple, giant robot.

The shifts between scenes, however, can be a little difficult to follow in terms of the timeline of the character, and a couple of plotlines are left a bit dangling.

But a line, later in the play, stirred my mind a little more than I might have expected, and I kind of wish the idea behind the line had been explored more. The line is, roughly, “Why would you want to take something away that makes me happy?” To me, this line really evokes the question of how we treat and deal with people with mental illness, as defined by our society. The play leaves the issue, among other things, ambiguous. Whether it’s better for having done so, I’m not really sure.

I would really like to see a pure sketch comedy show done by Jayson McDonald. I think that would be a hell of a lot of fun.