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Peer Reviews Bad (Both)
and Beyond: Entire contents are copyright © 2007 A.S. Waterman. All rights reserved.
Bunbury Theatre has some great new digs. The refurbished Henry Clay Building is definitely worth a look, as is its well-appointed new theatre that seats around 150, with good sight lines for all. The set that currently adorns the stage, designed by Karl Anderson, is one of the finest around, a beautifully painted reversible wall with extraordinary attention to detail. Unfortunately, all of this amounts to a fine venue in need of a production. For its return after nearly three years, Bunbury presents Beyond Therapy by Christopher Durang, best known for small-theatre perennial The Marriage of Bette and Boo. First produced in 1981, Beyond Therapy opens with a personal-ad date between Bruce and Prudence (played by attractive actors Robert McFarland and Katherine Mapother), who exchange a series of ridiculous compliments, yielding increasing clues that both are nutty as fruitcakes. We soon learn that Bruce is bi-sexual and living with a man, that both Bruce and Prudence are in therapy, and that their two therapists are even nuttier than they are. Prudence's therapist, Stuart (Matt Orme), is a lecherous sleaze in '80s disco garb, concerned only with having sex with his patients. Charlotte (Rita Hight), Bruce's therapist, speaks to her patients through a Snoopy doll and constantly substitutes unrelated words -- we're never sure why. Indeed we're never sure why any of the characters do what they do, as they continually make decisions guaranteed to make matters worse -- Bruce invites Prudence over for dinner when his lover, Bob, is at home ... Prudence keeps returning to Stuart for treatment, despite his constant demands for sex ... Bob (Todd Haley) buys a starting pistol to shoot at Bruce ... and so forth. Performances are largely understated, with the exception of Hight's, whose over-the-top antics and barking seem out of place by comparison. There are laughs, but most of the absurd and dated humor makes us cringe. A late appearance by comic actor David DeSpain, as a macho-gay waiter, adds some pleasant light humor, but the playwright's attempt to unify this addition (yes, the waiter is also in therapy with Charlotte) only muddles an already confusing denouement. Toward the end of the play, therapist Charlotte -- who has previously been unable to distinguish the word "patient" from "porpoise," and "secretary" from "dirigible" -- suddenly launches into an eloquent discourse on the plays of Anton Chekhov, explaining how Chekhov's contemporaries viewed these as tragedies while he described them as comedies. One has to wonder if she is commenting on the evening's performance. Whether director Juergen Tossmann started with a farce and directed a psychodrama, or started with a psychodrama and directed a farce, remains as much a mystery as Charlotte's sudden transformation from dysphasic to English professor. On Thursday night, the show played to an audience of 13, which included ushers. Perhaps more seats would have been filled if someone had answered the reservation line over the past several weeks, or at least mastered call forwarding and voice mail. In the words of one might-have-gone, "If the theatre is that unprofessional, how good could their plays be?" The colorful playbill, nicely printed but desperate for a proofread, was the next bad sign, as was conflicting information about parking. Bunbury needs a reminder that a theatre company is equal parts creative venture and business operation, and that one can't survive without the other. As for Beyond Therapy, it's an awful play about some awful people who go out of their way to get into awful situations. Don't follow suit. Wait for Bunbury's next offering in the fall.
Beyond Therapy July 18 - August 5, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007
The Director responds: http://theatrelouisville.org/reviews2007/jt_beyond.php
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