Customer Reviews

Beyond Therapy

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Christopher Durang never fails to entertain, amuse, and surprise with his take on issues of the day. In this 1981 play, which ran off-Broadway with Sigourney Weaver in the starring role of Prudence, and then had a later Broadway incarnation with Dianne Wiest in the same role, Durang gently satirizes the tendency of young thirty-somethings to seek therapy as the solution to their problems--even when their therapists have greater problems than they do. Combining his relatively gentle satire of therapy with the perennial search for love and fulfillment by thirty-somethings who are not part of the bar scene or have no appropriate connections to others like themselves, Durang creates a lively and hilarious look at the 1980s, one which still resonates in the present.

All the main characters are in therapy, and scenes between them and their therapists are laugh-out-loud funny, the therapists revealing more deep-seated problems than the main characters do. (One therapist barks.) Prudence, in her early thirties, has placed an ad in the personals of the newspaper and is meeting Bruce, the person who responded, in a restaurant for the first time. The meeting is not auspicious, with the potential lovers ultimately infuriating each other. A second meeting, in response to Bruce's blatantly phony personal description, is a bit better, though Bruce naively reveals that he has been living with Bob, his "roommate," for the past year.

Prudence and Bruce clearly have some sort of attraction, but when Prudence visits Bruce's apartment (which she finds just like her own--a plus), she also discovers Bob, who is supposed to be visiting his mother. Bob is jealous and possessive, and all the interrelationships are threatened. Ultimately, all the characters meet in a grand finale that brings the themes of love vs. alienation, the need for acceptance, and the desire to be independent into focus and provides some resolution.

Bruce is both vulnerable and naïve, a man who inadvertently hurts those who care about him. Prudence is the only voice of sanity here, and though she also has problems, she is the point around whom all the crazy action rotates. Stuart, her therapist, is over-the-top in his jealousy and insecurity, adding color and humor to the psychosocial mix. Charlotte Wallace, Bruce's therapist, is absurd, a wonderful character who is so crazy that all the other characters look normal by comparison. A terrific satiric look at 1980s thirty-something urban society, this play is less black than many of Durang's later plays, a wonderful introduction to the fine sensibilities and offbeat humor of this unique American talent. n Mary Whipple

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I hunted down a copy of this play to do a scene from it. I read it from cover to cover in less than 2 hours; I couldn't put it down! The play is very absurd, as the four main characters (a man - who was played by Jon Lithgow of 3rd Rock at one point - a woman, and their respective therapists) are all desperately need of therapy.

It's very hard to describe what parts of the play I found humorous, as they are so well written, any rewording or paraphrasing I do would not be doing it justice. If you enjoy absurdity, this play is definitely worth your time and money.

Born in 1949, Christopher Durang is the author of numerous successful plays--but his reputation rests largely on two in particular, the highy controversial 1979 SISTER MARY IGNATIUS EXPLAINS IT ALL FOR YOU and the 1981 BEYOND THERAPY, which opened in 1981 with a cast including Sigourney Weaver and Jim Collins. After a successful off-Broadway run, in 1982 the show transferred to Broadway in a somewhat re-written form with a cast that included Dianne Wiest and John Lithgow. Although not a popular success in this incarnation, it was a critical one, and it has remained a popular ever since.

Set in the early 1980s before the AIDS epidemic, and at a point when many people found it fashionable to have a psychiatrist or psyhologist, BEYOND THERAPY is hilariously convoluted. Bruce runs a lonelyhearts ad and Prudence answers it. Their first meeting is an absolute disaster and both rush off to their therapists, who are even nuttier than they: Bruce's therapist Charolotte is riddled with bizarre eccentricities and Prudence's therapist Stuart has seduced her and is now trying to drag her back into his bed. Bruce writes another lonelyhearts ad. Who answers it? Prudence. The meeting is another disaster, but disconcered by apparent fate of the whole thing, Prudence does indeed begin a relationship with Bruce--only to be confronted by his live-in male lover Bob, who is in group therapy, and who declares he is going to kill himself over the whole thing. The two rush him to Charlotte for some immediate therapy while Bruce takes Prudence to dinner. But Bob has a gun, Stuart is stalking Prudence, and there's this gay waiter fresh out of reform school named Andrew. And they all end up in the same restaurant where Bruce and Prudence first met.

If the plot is inspired lunacy, so too is the dialogue. Durang is famous for his ability to turn a phrase, and his skill truly shines here, with my favorite line in the play being "Your mother acts like a transvestite!" The stage concept is also clever, with each set reusing furniture from the previous scene until Prudence points out that everything looks the same no matter where she goes. She finds this comforting, but overall it seems to be a playwright's comment on the sterility the characters must deal with it and the difficulty they experience in breaking out of their respective ruts.

Whenever I review a play, I like to point out that plays are not really meant to be read. A script is like a blueprint, and it is intended to be interpreted by a director, actors, and designers and only then seen by the public. So unless you have a fairly good idea of how the theatre works in a technical sort of way, you may find it very difficult to imagine how a particular play will actually work on the stage. Fortunately for BEYOND THERAPY, few readers should have such a problem. It translates in the head with tremendous ease. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Though I haven't read this entire play, I have done some scene acting with it, and so far have really liked what I've been preforming. I searched this play so I could read the entire thing, but, from the scenes I have read, I've found it to be funny, refreshing, and completely rude and real all at the same time. The writing is fantastic and based on my reading so far, I would recommend it.