Transference | Reviews
Transference, a zany comedy, was produced at the Mercury Theater in November of 2006. It opened to rave reviews. It was directed by Jeff Lee. Lee, a director for Disney Theatricals was the assistant director for Julie Taymor on the original Broadway production of The Lion King. He then directed the Lion King in London, Tokyo, and Chicago.
Creating a crescendo of laughs from such nutty lunacy is not an easy thing to pull off. In the wrong hands, this ridiculous frolic, written by Lee Scheier, could easily self destruct. But with an incredible cast of comedic talent and in the masterful hands of director Jeff Lee (who originally mounted "The Lion King" with director Julie Taymor), everything about this work is a hoot.
Lee's awesome comic direction elevates this spoof of psychiatry and the show's outstanding performers leave an indelible mark of unstoppable hilarity.
As Dr. Levine, Frederic Stone (an extraordinary Chicago actor who, until now, hasn't received the acclaim he so richly deserves) delivers a portrayal of such wit, subtlety and razor-sharp comic timing that he had everyone in the audience holding their sides in laughter. He was so funny that one wonders how he himself could keep a straight face as he delivered his riotous lines.
As the lonely, desperate-to-fall-in-love young man and woman with unbelievable hang-ups, Ed Kross and Bethany Caputo are incredible in their zany attempts at love making.
And then there are the loony Feldmans, Harold and Miriam, played by Dev Kennedy and Diane Dorsey. The mayhem that Harold causes when he turns into a dog is zany fun.
Everything about this show is a blast of laughs. If you have any psychological problems that need fixing, this is the perfect manic laugh-filled therapy for you.
When slapstick farce is bad, it can be awful. But when it's good, as it is in "Transference," in its world premiere at the Mercury Theater, it's very, very good.
This show about the psychobabble of psychiatry is one of the silliest, most outrageous and most hilarious comedy shows that I have seen in a very long time. It was so funny that I found myself screaming with laughter alongside the show's opening-night audience.
The premise of the show centers on Dr. Sidney Levine's new form of psychiatry. Instead of wasting 14 years in therapy, Dr. Levine has devised a new technique in which he can cure patients of their mental problems in only 45 minutes.
From the opening moment when Dr. Levine tries to explain his new technique to fellow shrinks at a conference in New York, to the crazy dating scene of a young man and young woman and to the bedroom of a successful attorney who believes he is a dog, this wacky romp of a show keeps the jokes coming so fast and furious that I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.
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
The Chicago Critic
Fresh hilarious madcap comedy psyches audiences
November 12, 2006
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.
Playwright Lee Scheier is a medical and legal journalist—he is also a terrific instinctive comedy writer. Transferenceis 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.
The Sun Times
So what's it all about? Well, to begin with, it's about Dr. Sidney Levine (the peerlessly droll Fredric Stone), a fruitcake-nutty psychiatrist whose newly devised high-speed transference technique, designed to cure even the most troubled patients in record time, has made him a pariah among his professional colleagues. Of course Dr. Levine will test his new technique on at least two very needy characters in the play.
One is Miriam Feldman (Diane Dorsey), the devoted middle-aged wife of Harold (Dev Kennedy), a lawyer about to be named a judge. Harold is in such a state of high anxiety over his impending success that he has decided he is a dog -- a whippet, the fastest canine in the world, other than the greyhound. So his wife heads to the shrink on his behalf and gets just the right treatment herself.
Also in a state of angst are two lonely, late twentysomethings -- Jack Schwartz (Ed Kross), a longtime patient of Dr. Levine who suffers from a terror of intimacy and commitment, and Annie O'Reilly (Caputo), a modern dancer starved for a relationship and hellbent on making Jack the object of her lust. Both are as crazy as loons, and, of course, destined for each other.
So then, should you take to the couch? Well, there are worse medicines than goofy laughter.
Move to a funny state with 'Transference'
November 15, 2006
BY HEDY WEISS Theater Critic
Return with me now to the late 1960s and early '70s, when the frothy, stereotypical urban romantic comedies of Woody Allen and Neil Simon were all the rage -- a time when "neurotic" covered a multitude of maladies, psychiatry was king, most shrinks were Jewish and most of their patients ate at Chinese restaurants.
Such a retro journey comes via a ticket to "Transference," Lee Scheier's "therapeutic comedy," now in its world premiere at the Mercury Theater. But be advised: If you happen to be a Baby Boomer, this is the kind of stuff your parents used to like.
The truth is, while Scheier's play is pure sitcom for the stage -- and while it feels imported directly from a bygone era -- it also happens to be funny. Credit Jeff Lee's high- energy direction. But more than that, applaud the show's five tireless, impossibly zany, physically fearless actors, who possess a talent for transforming the mundane into the happily mad. And cheer for actress Bethany Caputo -- who easily could be taken for a lost sister of Joan Cusack. Buoyantly brilliant, she straight out steals the show.