Chatham Community Players Performance Goes Above and 'Beyond'

As Bruce, the male protagonist of “Beyond Therapy,” describes his reasons for wanting to marry uptight female protagonist Prudence, he describes himself as constantly fluctuating between traditional and normal actions and those that could be considered extreme or insane.

That constant fluctuation fits the description of just about every aspect of the play, as well as the performances brought to the stage this weekend by the Chatham Community Players for the first part of the show’s three-week run.

The play focuses on Bruce and Prudence—he a positive thinker who does and says exactly comes to his mind, and she an uptight woman looking to find companionship by answering—as they try to balance their unusual relationship.

Complicating the story even further are Bruce’s bisexuality and both protagonists’ strange relationships with their respective therapists.

As Bruce, Scott Tyler’s endless energy ably captures the positive, act-before-you-think approach to life that the character has developed thanks to his goofy, scatter-brained psychiatrist Charlotte.

The positivity Tyler encapsulates and then thrusts forward makes the character appear overwhelmingly to be the guy the audience is rooting for, despite some of Bruce’s gung-ho actions—putting personal ads in the paper to meet women while being in a relationship with a man, for instance—being thoughtless and somewhat ruthless.

Donne Petito, who makes all the right moves in portraying her character’s dippiness and truly one-note approach to therapy: do or say what you think as soon as you think it. Petito also seems to delight in delivering Charlotte’s ineptitude for remembering simple words, constantly saying “dirigible” when referencing her secretary.

Whereas the therapy sessions between Charlotte and open-to-everything Bruce are enjoyable to watch, mostly because they play on the lighter side and the audience can see how the therapist’s style rubs off on her patient, the scenes between Prudence and her therapist Stuart are on the opposite side of the spectrum.

Half of the uneasiness is due to the back story given to the actors: Prudence has twice been seduced by Stuart. From there, one may wonder why Prudence, played by Tara Cioletti, still pays for sessions, despite actively searching for alternatives to what she considers her dull approach to life.

Part of the uneasiness comes from the audience’s inability to decipher what likeable qualities possessed by Stuart in the first place. The play’s author provides the character with a few lines of dialogue that could exude characteristics of strength or believability as a therapist, lover or simply a helpful character; however, none of these are pinpointed or, possibly, taken advantage of in the performance by Scott Jacoby.

The best performance of the bunch comes from Michael Sundberg, whose Bob shows up just in time to challenge the young couple’s fortitude and shaky attempt at stable, realistic relationship. As Bruce’s understandably jilted, live-in gay lover, Sundberg delivers his glances and biting remarks with a fluid cattiness that is both deliciously immature and realistic considering the circumstances.

This performance of “Beyond Therapy” brings a lot of varying energies to the stage, constantly fluctuating between the insane and the realistic.

The best scene by far is the penultimate one where all of the characters meet for the first time and, subsequently, all of the energies of both the characters and the performers collide on one another and provide what audience member Christine Finnerty described as a “necessary balance” to the frantic nature of the characters and preceding scenes.

“I really liked that scene because it provided a counterpoint to everything that had happened in the play up to that point and tied it up,” Finnerty said.

Performances aside, the show was boosted, though subtly, by both the set design and music selection. With just four black and two white chairs, as well as two black and two white tables—all arranged in different configurations to establish four different settings—very little attention is drawn to anything but the actors’ every motions.

And the scene change music, almost Muzak-like versions of mostly popular ‘80's songs, allowed the time and place of the play to be established in a way that set the tone without making too big a deal out of it.