You Need Therapy & Beyond

ore neurotic than Seinfeld, more frank than Sex and the City, Beyond Therapy is a colorful look at that special quality that makes us human--imperfection. Written by Christopher Durang, who also authored The Actor's Nightmare and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All to You, Therapy retains its freshness even almost 20 years after its Broadway premiere.

It begins like a bad Blind Date episode, with one of the personal ad respondents quickly exposing his allegiance to bran muffins over God and his ability to cry. In fact, all three of the play's thirty-something characters and their therapists expose and agonize over their issues with sexual persuasion, depression and relationships.

But as exaggerated as they may initially seem, these individuals become more and more identifiable as the play progresses. Nearly every viewer can relate to at least one of the worries of these over-sensitive and over-obsessive people. And if you can't relate with it, you can still laugh at it.

As the title reflects, half of this worrying takes place on the therapist's couch, and the other half is spent talking about therapy. Durang's world of therapy is a very humorous and unusual place, filled with barking psychotherapists and psychiatrists who shag their patients. Ultimately, however, it is the overlapping relationships of one man, his male lover and his new girlfriend that illuminate the play's true themes of personal acceptance. As subtly stated by Bruce, the bisexual member of this triumvirate, "We need to accept contradictions in ourselves."

This work is a production of Where's Gus? Theatre, a newly recognized all-comedy theater group. Senior Jessica Maas directs, sophomores Meghan Valerio and Greg Anderson produce, stage managing is Vinny Eng and all sound styling are the work of Stephanie Yeh. The cast includes junior Blake Johnson as Prudence, sophomore Paul Downs as Bruce, senior Catherine Frels as Charlotte, senior Blake Byrnes as Stuart, sophomore William Lynam as Bob, and sophomore Adam Bloomfield as Andrew.

Tickets are six dollars and can be purchased either at the door or Friday on the Bryan Center walkway. The production runs Friday and Saturday at 8pm in 209 East Duke.

--By Alison M. Haddock