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Transference
A Therapeutic comedy
By Lee Scheier
Directed by Jeff Lee
Produced by One Way Out Productions
At the Mercury Theater
3745 N. Southport
Chicago, IL
Call 773-325-1700, tickets $39.50 - $46.50
(Call for dinner packages)
Tuesdays at 8 PM
Wednesdays at 2 & 8 PM
Thursdays at 8 PM
Fridays at 8 PM (special 2 PM matinee on 11/24
Saturdays at 5 & 8:30 PM
Sundays at 2 & 5:30 PM
December 31 performances at 6 & 9:30 PM
Running time is 2 hours, 15 minutes with intermission
Through December 31, 2006
Fresh hilarious madcap comedy psyches audiences
It so rare that a new comedy works to produce as many belly laughs as does Lee Scheier’s Transference. This is a flat-out funny show that will leave you rolling on the floor laughing. It is a light weight, yet surprisingly smart farce with a fresh concept featuring three clever comic situations that never gets old. Another rare element—a comic situation that sustains its humor through. That is testimony to writing craft and spot-on comedic timing.
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Playwright Lee Scheier is a medical and legal journalist—he is also a terrific instinctive comedy writer. Transference is a hoot! From basic thread to polished production, this farce delivers wit and raw humor with sprinkles of parody of Dr. Phil and the psycho babble we are inundated with in today’s society. A “transference” in psychoanalysis is the process by which emotions and desires originally associated with one person, such as a parent or sibling, are unconsciously shifted to another person, especially to the analyst. Scheier nicely mounts his comedy on this clearly stated premise. The result produces wildly zany situations, ergo laughs galore.
Dr. Sidney Levine (Fredric Stone as the manic, loony psychiatrist) has developed a new high-speed transference technique to cure the craziest of folks. Frederic Stone sets up all the comedy to follow with a hilarious opening bit where he’s at a psychology conference (at the podium) trying to refute the charges that he’s s quack. Later, Stone introduces puppets that he uses a therapy device. These produce warm humor. You’ll not see a finer use of arm puppets than at this cute show.
We see the prominent attorney, Harold Feldman (Dev Kennedy) who thinks he’s a dog (a Whippet actually) and his cold, unsympathetic wife Miriam (Diane Dorsey) who frantically tries to ‘cure’ his identity crisis. This bit works as Dev Kennedy’s physical movements remind one of a dog including barking and lifting his leg to pee. Sustaining this through several scenes was a major task that Kennedy and Diane Dorsey work hard to land the humor. These scenes are priceless.
The funniest moments concern the lonely, losers who are desperate to meet someone to start a relationship with. Ed Kross as Jack Schwartz (one of Dr. Levine’s patients for 14 years) is a neurotic whose low self esteem makes him a loner while Bethany Caputo’s Annie O’Reilly is another excessive-compulsive lone heart also desperate for a relationship. Played out in several fabulously funny scenes filled with sharp retorts, physical bits and emotionally moving scenes, Bethany Caputo and Ed Kross steal the show with their wonderful stage chemistry. They give a lesson on how to play comic scenes that are moving, poignant yet hysterically funny.
Transference has a sustainable premise that carries the main characters (Dr. Levine, Harold, the dog, Annie and Jack) through enough madcap adventures to offer two hours of belly laughs. Zany situation and aptly over played colorful characters produces a refreshingly original comedy. Manic, polished, fearless comic performances with tight staging and direction makes for a fine night of comic theatre. We all need some laughs and Transference does that all night long.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: November 12, 2006
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