The innovative, hilarious Couples Counseling charts the complicated relationship between a therapist and couple whose relationship is wildly unraveling. As roles continually shift and objects of desire change, the three characters struggle to understand their feelings towards one another and how best to express them. The play makes much use of language as characters speak over one another, finish the other’s sentences and speak in fragments, creating layers of meaning and simultaneous misunderstanding. Excerpts from the theories of Freud add yet another layer of texture. From this cacophony of noise, the characters ultimately tease out a thread of understanding. Couples Counseling is a play that demonstrates how often, our deepest instincts prove far clearer than the clutter and chatter of the human mind.
Couples Counseling had its World Premiere in Los Angeles at the Roy and Edna Disney Theatre, REDCAT, produced by the School of Theatre of California Institute of the Arts. It then played an exclusive engagement at 59E59 Theaters in New York City before traveling to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
PRODUCTION DETAILS
|
Title |
Couples Counseling |
| Running Time | 70 minutes |
| Characters | HE ………… mid-20s to late 30s |
| SHE ……… mid-20s to late 30s | |
| DR. BOB MELMUD …….. older than they | |
| Production History | Looking Glass Theatre, NYC (staged reading, 2001)
REDCAT Theatre, LA (world premiere, 2004) Manhattan Rep Fall Theatre Festival, NYC (2009) Developed at Ensemble Studio Theatre |
| Production Requirements | Minimal set and tech
Three blocks (18” cubed) and a bed or couch (optional) |
| Creative Team | See production details link |
| Performance Space | Intimate |
| Personnel | Stage Manager
Sound and Lighting Operator |
| Prop List | Notepads
Cough drops Appointment book Two guns A copy of Maria Nemeth’s The Energy of Money A copy of Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents Grocery bag Appointment cards |