 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
Beyond Therapy
by Christopher Durang
as Bruce
Ruskin Theatre Group
opens May 13, 2005
------about Beyond Therapy:
Beyond Therapy premiered off-Broadway at the Phoenix Theatre
in New York City
on January 1, 1981.
Beyond Therapy was presented on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson
Theatre in New
York City in April, 1982.
------story:
Bruce and Prudence meet through a personals ad, but their date doesn’t
go so 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 then end up throwing water
in each others’
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 she 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 Bob’s 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 like one another though,
and end by humming softly
together their favorite song, Someone to Watch Over Me.
------previous reviews:
One of the funniest plays I’ve seen in years
– Rex Reed, New York Daily News
“[Durang] is a serious young writer who can’t help thinking
comically. "Beyond Therapy"
…[is] zany in a particularly intelligent way…wickedly funny,
terribly slanted, and essentially true.
– Dan Sullivan, LA Times
