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Playwright Christopher Durang's comedies manage to blend touchy, even challenging, subjects, date rape, for instance, homosexuality and even torture, among others, with laughs in a way that emerges as sharp-edged social satire. In his play, "Beyond Therapy," produced by Westport Playhouse April 26 through May 14, the central characters, Bruce and Prudence, meet through a personal ad. The hilarity centers on their getting to know each other and the discovery of what they have in common, therapy, for instance (their therapists meet as well) and what they don't, a mutual attraction.
When it moved from off-Broadway to open on Broadway in 1982, "Beyond Therapy" starred John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest and David Hyde Pierce. Gerald Clarke, for Time Magazine, called "Beyond Therapy," "Screwball and scatty, with as much owed to the Marx Brothers as to the Viennese brethern, 'Beyond Therapy' offers the best therapy of all: guaranteed laughter. Durangs plot, which has more bounces than a pinball game, goes from the unexpected to the unpredicted providing two hours of hilarious surprise."
An only child, Durang grew up in New Jersey in the 50s and 60s. He loved his parents but has described his childhood as unhappy because of his architect father's alcoholism and his parents' contentious marriage. Yet, he acknowledges how his family and friends were the cradle of his creativity and populate his plays, as he described in an interview for students. "The people I grew up around were also complex and interesting, and I found the extended family of many aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents to be very intricate and interesting in how they interacted. And I find, in retrospect, that I took all this behavior in, lived with it, suffered through some of it when it would turn hurricane-like, forgot about it, and then suddenly it would come charging out of me in the form of a nutty comedy."
Don't miss the chance to see one of Durang's "nutty" comedies, "Beyond Therapy, which as the NY Times expressed it, puts the "fun in dysfunction." Tickets are $35-$65. Following the May 1st 3 p.m. performance, playwright Christopher Durang discusses his works in a symposium at Westport Playhouse moderated by Playhouse artistic director Mark Lamos. For more information, visit the Playhouse's website.
Have you seen any of Durang's plays? Let us know by posting below.
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