It’s hard to imagine that Beyond Therapy, the delightfully outlandish farce Eclipse Theatre now has running at the Athenaeum, could be nearly as endearing under the charge of any other director. Rachel Lambert in her staging of Christopher Durang’s 1981 lampoon on the dating game has overseen the production of a little jewel.
Originally presented back when Lady Di tied that fateful knot with Prince Charles and Sally Ride blasted off and became the first American woman to enter space, this iteration of Beyond Therapy stays true to the look and feel of the times. Warm harvest colors on the set and costumes that carried whiffs of Saturday Night Fever made the tone comfortably nostalgic.
In Durang’s sly wrangling of a story, Bruce (Nick Freed) and Prudence (Devi Reisenfeld) find each other through a personal ad and decide to meet for a date. Arriving early, anxious and more than a little nervous, Bruce’s fastidiousness in making sure his appearance delivered looked as ridiculous as it was meticulous. Bizarre and very funny. Without saying a word, he let you know this was going to be an interesting ride. When Prudence shows up; just as anxious, judgmental, hungry for affection and riddled with her own feelings of inadequacy, it was clear the chemistry between them might prove to be more than just a little volatile.
With his dearth of filters and wealth of peculiarities, Bruce complimented Prudence on her breasts as well as her eyes, casually mentioned his boyfriend, Bob, and confessed to crying easily; all within the first ten minutes of the date.
Shocked, dismayed and finally exasperated, Prudence flees the restaurant, goes back to her life with her cat and laments her plight with her therapist.
She also tries her luck with other personal ads. It’s easy to empathize with her chagrin when she finds herself on another date with Bruce who’s been clocking in time with his own therapist about his dilemmas with love.
This will become a cycle. One in which restaurants with no waiters and therapists with no sense become crucial elements of the plot.
And then there’s Bob. Up to this point, all the characters toyed with flashes of brilliance and managed to ingratiate themselves to us with impressive ease. Freed in his role as Bruce sustained a genuineness that superseded his buffoonery. And Reisenfeld’s Prudence was resolute in making sure her character’s good sense protected her insecurities. In this story, her vigilance proved a crucial defense.
Her therapist, Stuart (Joe McCauley); absurdly macho, vain and cursed with a tendency of arriving early during sex sees Prudence more as sexual conquest than patient. And Lynne Baker as Bruce’s therapist Charlotte electrified her performance as a slightly daffy mental health professional who never can remember the right word for anything and probably knew a good place to score some good bud. Despite all that, the clarity of her instincts never faltered.
But none of them surpassed the specialness of Bob, played a little over the top but still magnificently by Siddhatha Rajan. Well, a lot over the top. Thin as a strand of linguine with a massive shock of black hair and thick mustache, moving in what looked to be something between a seductive slither and a rolling stroll, Bob got and kept your attention. But that’s the nature of farce when elevated to champagne level. Take the absurdity all the way to the wall but do it with true panache.
Suitably alarmed at Bruce’s sudden and serious interest in women and not content to be the “boyfriend living over the garage”, he pouts, swoons, snipes and enchants in equal measure.
Encased in Samantha Rausch’s cozy set, Beyond Therapy felt and looked perfect for an age still carrying the residue of psychedelic free love. The restraint Zachary Wagner displayed in his costumes proved wonderfully canny and worked beautifully to enhance the show.
By the time the final scene arrived, you couldn’t help but be a little disheartened that this rollicking tryst would be coming to an end. Reminding us with laughter that there are as many roads to love as there are kinds of love, Beyond Therapy did its job well.
Beyond Therapy
July 11 – August 18, 2019
Eclipse Theatre Company
Athenaeum Theatre
2936 N. Southport Ave.
Chicago, IL 60657
773-935-6875
