This is a shrink play. Three black, faux-leather swivel chairs become the offices of two analysts: level-headed Kathryn Brooks (Linda West) and earnest Mark Ryan (Thomas F. Honeck). Mark accepts an emergency call from volatile Annalisa Dominico, who is having boyfriend trouble. She pours out her problems to Mark, who in turn airs them with his own shrink, Kathryn. Annalisa has rapid-fire oscillations in her relationship with Anthony Fatima (Frank Caruso), to whom she is as addicted as to her cell phone. As Mark gets more involved with Annalisa and her antics, she dominates his increasingly charged sessions with Kathryn to the exclusion of his disturbed relationship with wife Janet. After Kathryn confesses a deep, dark secret from her past, Mark also comes clean about what he would like to do with his more-than-willing patient. To Mark's surprise only, the two move on to the consummation stage. Against her better judgment, Kathryn agrees to help Mark referee a joint session with Annalisa and the as-yet-unseen Anthony. Kathryn and Mark are suitably shocked when they greet Anthony, who could easily be Annalisa's father. The lovebirds show off their tempers, and subsequently Mark masters his feelings to drop Annalisa as a patient now that she realizes that Anthony will never divorce his wife Claudia of many years.
Ken Wolf's direction works better during the comic moments than the more dramatic scenes. Even though the play is about analysis, no one really seems to want to analyze their problem relationships, so there was little opportunity for character development. As Mark, Thomas F. Honeck alternates abruptly between earnest professionalism and defensive outbursts. Linda West has an easier time portraying the calm and collected Kathryn except when she, too, freaks out. Frank Caruso plays Anthony's Italian-American ethos to the hilt, and in the process provides the only believable character. By comparison, Lia Redding's Annalisa does not ring true under Wolf's direction. She is a "princess" all right, just not an Italian one per his script. Because The Eyes of Love scarcely gets beyond a surface exposition of the four personalities involved, it is uninteresting even as a non-Equity showcase. Maybe as a TV sit-com, the steady series of gags would hold people's attention between refrigerator breaks.
