Classic Couples Counseling 

Review by Terry Morgan

Sometimes a great concept is enough to power a play, such as the backwards structure of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal or the three plays intersecting simultaneously in Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests. It doesn’t hurt that those works mentioned also benefited from strong writing, acting and direction. Classic Couples Counseling, a world premiere at the Secret Rose Theatre in North Hollywood, has a great concept, but unfortunately lacks strong writing, acting and direction.

One out of four ain’t so good.

Patricia Cataldo (Constance Mellors) is a therapist with an unique client base: couples from Shakespeare plays. Ophelia (Lindsay Ravage and alternate, Lindsey Santefort) complains about Hamlet’s (Paul Gunning) indecisiveness, while Romeo (Elliot Schwartz) and Juliet (Kimberly Woods) are unprepared for real life. Desdemona (Heather Keller) tries to assuage Othello’s (Thomas Anthony Jones) jealousy, while Petruchio (Bill Sehres) and Kate (Anne Leyden) squabble. The Macbeths (Anthony Gruppuso & Barbara Mallory), of course, just want to kill everybody.

Lloyd J. Schwartz’s writing emphasizes broad humor, but most of the jokes aren’t very funny. (One of Hamlet’s nicknames is “ham and cheese.”) He also seems to think merely quoting lines from Shakespeare is hilarious. The first five scenes are just a setup, with each couple stating their dysfunctions to the shrink, and the sameness of this structure quickly becomes tedious. The couples complain, the therapist listens. Things get a bit more interesting once it becomes group therapy, with the characters commenting on each other, but this leads to the play’s final disappointment — it turns out to have a message: Therapy makes things worse. (The therapist actually cackles madly, talking to a stuffed animal.) Ultimately, this show is essentially a series of sketches in search of a play.

Ted Lange’s pedestrian direction combines with the uneven performance quality of some of his cast. – Terry Morgan

Secret Rose Theatre, 11246 Magnolia Blvd., N. Hwd., Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. through April 27. www.Plays411.com/classic