Many ’80s artifacts are best gone for good: Fond memories of REO Speedwagon, shoulder pads and “ALF” are better than the reality.
The same is true of Christopher Durang’s “Beyond Therapy” — although it’s hard to tell whether the play itself is outdated or the TACT company mucked up its revival.
Durang, who deservedly won a Tony last year for “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” has come a long way since 1982, when “Beyond Therapy” bombed on Broadway — only 21 performances, despite a cast headed by John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest.
Like several Woody Allen movies of that time, Durang’s farce is set in Manhattan at the neurotic intersection of dating and, well, therapy.
Prudence (Liv Rooth) answers a personal ad, only to end up on a horrible date with the man who placed it, Bruce (Mark Alhadeff). Things start off badly enough, when he casually mentions his male lover, Bob (Jeffrey C. Hawkins), and go downhill from there.
Soon after, they run to their respective unprofessional shrinks, Stuart (Karl Kenzler) and Charlotte (Cynthia Darlow) — who refuses to believe Bruce is gay because “he doesn’t lisp.”
Things eventually improve between Prudence and Bruce, though unfortunately, Bob finds himself in the middle of one of their dates.
The would-be-funny zaniness ramps up until an exhausting scene in which all five hurl insults and glasses of water at each other.
Director Scott Alan Evans keeps the period setting because there’s really no other way to do the play: It’s glued to its time and place. Still, there was no need to up the ’80 ante by having the cast move the set during scene changes while dancing to the likes of Pat Benatar.
Durang’s own cracks give us a bird’s eye view of the time period: “Three’s Company,” Kate Millett, the Jill Clayburgh flick “An Unmarried Woman,” Plato’s Retreat.
But the most telling reference comes toward the end, when Charlotte brings up Chekhov, the literary figure who looms over Durang’s later “Vanya.”
“If you take psychological suffering in the right frame of mind, you can find the humor in it,” she advises Prudence in her single moment of lucidity.
That’s a lesson Durang, at least, took to heart.