Classic Couples Counseling

Reviewed by Iris Mann
Theatre West
Through May 8

Lloyd J. Schwartz’s clever spoof on some of Shakespear’s iconic characters is based on a provocative premise. A psychotherapist named Dr.Patricia Cataldo (Constance Mellors) counsels five couples from some of the Bard’s most famous plays, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth. If performed with a certain delicacy, Classic Couples Counseling promises to amuse and delight audiences, particularly those who are familiar with the works in question. Unfortunately, the production at Theater West falls far short of what is needed for the play to realize its potential.

Among the devices that, under other circumstances, might well engage audiences is the playwright’s adroit way of taking some of the characters’ best known speeches and applying them to the proceedings at hand. For example, after an argument between Ophelia (Deanna Gandy) and Hamlet (Rick Simone-Friedland) whom she has called wishy-washy because he can’t make up his mind about marrying her, both of them start to cry. Patricia, who has diagnosed Hamlet as having paranoia, tells them to find a safe place in their minds so they can relax. Hamlet says he just wants to sleep, and then goes into one of his renowned verses, “In that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause…”

Schwartz also places unexpected modern colloquialisms after some of the characters’ signature quotations. Romeo (Cecil Jennings) tells the therapist what he said during his courting of Juliet (Amelia Vargas) when she came out on her balcony, “See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. Oh that I were a glove upon that hand, That I might touch that cheek.” Patricia is impressed. “Smooth,” she says, and Romeo replies, “I’ve got game. What can I say?”

A subtle balance between the classical and the contemporary approach must be achieved for the scenario to work, but director Nick McDow Musleh guides his cast into playing their roles as present-day people who are shrill and scream at each other constantly, with some of the women coming across as “valley girls.” If only they were in character, as the characters were originally written, and then slid, selectively, into their modern-day personae. How much more nimble the tone would then be.

Two exceptions stand out. Mellors, who plays the only contemporary individual, is a good anchor for the action.  She provides some truly comedic moments when her character starts to reveal personal secrets in the course of treating her patients. And Ashley Taylor in the role of Emilia, wife of the poisonous Iago from Othello, has the requisite bearing and delivery as she tries to break up the relationship between Othello (Brandon Foxworth) and Desdemona (Mary Elisabeth Somers).

Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Los Angeles; Fri.- Sat. 8:00 p.m.; Sun. 2:00 p.m.; through May 8. Tickets: 323-851-7977 or https://theatrewest.org.  Running time: 90 mins. with no intermission.