‘Sexualis’ socks it to the audience at
Allens Lane
by HUGH HUNTER
Allens Lane Theater began its run of Psychopathia Sexualis
by John Patrick Shanley this past week-end. Director Ryder Thornton and
his talented actors obviously are taking great delight in staging a wacky
comedy that is proud to be about everything and nothing.
The play’s title is a takeoff on the groundbreaking study of the
same name by Richard Freiherr Von Kraftt-Ebing (1886). Kraftt-Ebing took
a special interest in homosexuality and came to the conclusion that homosexuality
was not a “perversion” but rather a biological anomaly that
developed during gestation.
Shanley, who previously made his living spoofing Italians (he wrote the
screenplay for Moonstruck), playfully enlarges Kraftt-Ebing’s core
perception in Sexualis. None of the play’s characters is gay, but
all of them are odd in an almost biologically nutty way.
Heading up the list of human curiosities is Arthur (Foster Cronin). He
has been seeing Dr. Block for the past six years because he is a fetishist
who can only complete the sex act when he is in possession of a pair of
his father’s socks. Unable to “cure” the problem, Dr.
Block takes the desperate measure of stealing Arthur’s socks. This
delightfully goofy premise drives the play, as knowledge of Block’s
“evil” deed spreads.
The set design (Kathleen Chadwick) is thankfully minimal. Simple furniture
props and wall hangings re-create both home scenes and the psychiatrist’s
office. Music between acts ranges from Beethoven to Country and Western.
This itself is anomalous, lending a musical echo to proceedings that are
generally without rhyme or reason.
The spare staging leaves it up to the actors to make the show, and this
group rises to the challenge. Andrew Borthwick-Leslie is wonderful as
Dr. Block, who perversely argues against all comers in an emotionally
unengaged fashion . He reminded me of the store clerk in the famous Monty
Python “Dead Parrot” routine.
Under the stress of this encounter, both Arthur and his friend, Howard
(Stanton Davis), come undone in ways that allow us to glimpse their inner
nature, while Howard’s wife, Ellie (Morgan Cox), is the very essence
of the well-intentioned bungler. In the end it is all up to fiancee Lucille
to set matters straight. Elena Bossler is dead-on as the young Texas girl
who is freely sexual, whose only hero is John Wayne and who knows what
she knows.
Psychopathia is not without its flaws. The dramatic structure is weak,
and it fizzles in the end without coming to a satisfying denouement. But
the wit and language are fine, and the acting may be even better. It gives
us some fine satire on both helping professions and on the New York crowd
who take both psychiatry and themselves so seriously.
What we get in its place is a wry view of the world where nothing really
makes any sense. But if Shanley’s interpretation of Kraftt-Ebing
is correct, the world is not supposed to make sense.
Allens Lane Theater is located at McCallum Street and Allens Lane. Psychopathia
Sexualis will run from Friday to Sunday through February 4. Reservations
available at 215-248-0546 or www.allenslane.org.
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