Christopher Durang creates very strange, often incisive, plays, but they can also be obscure, with dialogue stylized and motivations fuzzy. Beyond Therapy, currently on the boards at PowPAC Theater under the direction of Marjorie Mae Treger, is a baffler. It's the story of a couple who met through an ad, and now both are going through therapy. Durang further obscures their relationship by the fact that he is bisexual, with a jealous boy friend, and she has gone to bed with her therapist. The author doesn't seem to have much regard for therapists. His shrink is a child psychologist who often uses the wrong words. Her therapist is constantly trying to bed her again.
Bruce and Prudence meet through a personal ad, but their date doesn't go well. He expresses emotions and likes to cry. Prudence doesn't think men should cry "unless something falls on them." He has a male lover. "I'm bisexual," he tells her. She's not sure. They talk at cross purposes some more and end up throwing water in each other's faces. We then see them talk about their meeting with their respective psychiatrists. Hers is a macho pig who once seduced her and keeps talking about his prowess. He refuses to say much but occasionally bursts into inappropriate anger. His is a warm, encouraging woman who embraces her patients, talks through her Snoopy doll and believes in expressing all feelings no matter what. She encourages Bruce to cry, and on hearing he threw water at Prudence cries out, "Good for you! Ruff, ruff, ruff!" The "ruff ruff" is her barking for Snoopy.
Somehow Bruce and Prudence meet a second time, surprisingly overcome their initial loathing, and start to maybe like one another. But then she has to meet the male lover Bob and listen to Bobs crazy mother on the phone. And the whole thing comes to a chaotic end in a mad restaurant scene where screaming and shootings take place, and Bruce and Prudence almost get together, but don't quite. They do end by humming softly together their favorite song, "Someone to Watch Over Me."
It is easy to question the sanity of all the characters. Bruce (Dan Lippert) is confused about his sexuality, and Prudence (Kellie Ochoa), his blind date, is immature, conflicted, and probably has some sexuality problems. His therapist, Charlotte (Lois Jane Miller), has serious problems, and her therapist, Stuart (Josh Hyatt), other than being fixated on Prudence, can't keep a patient past the first few sessions.
Bob (Shalen Bishop), Bruce's lover, also in serious need of therapy, is terribly afraid that Bruce will throw him over for Prudence. A waiter in the final scene, Andrew (Christopher Botiller), is a patient of Charlotte's, a biker, and a product of reform schools. Now that you are totally confused, let's take a look at the PowPAC production.
Brian Redfern's set works well for this multiple-location play. There are two apartments, two shrink shacks, and a couple of restaurants. Debbie David and Raylene Wall provide the set dressing and props to create to the various locations along with shifting background pieces. The director's sound design sets the mood for the production and many of the scenes. Raylene Wall's lighting defines the various playing areas quite well. Kris Bauer's costumes complement the characters. Ochoa seems to have a new costume in each scene and must be congratulated on some of the fastest costume changes I've seen in years.
Beyond Therapy brings out strong emotions in audiences. Those familiar with Durang's nonsense really enjoy it; those unfamiliar, don't. The Sunday matinee audience I witnessed fell into the second category, and it didn't help that the direction was over the top. Subtle humor was lost in the extremely strong delivery. Ochoa shouted too many of her lines. Hyatt's Stuart was unconvincing as a psychiatrist. The final scene should be delightful madness, but this production offered so much loud emotion earlier on, the finale wasn't as crazy as it ought to have been.
