By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The audience is in the dark as “Psych” begins. At the end they are treated to a lightning round of plot twists and preposterous resolutions. In between death, deception, and hilarity ensue. This is the kind of play where just trying to retell the plot will elicit laughter, and may spoil some of the fun of the comic revelations.
The Black Swamp Players’ production of “Psych” by Lisa Rowe opens Friday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 1526 E. Wooster, Bowling Green. The play continues Saturday, Nov. 16, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 17, at 2 p.m. with performances Nov. 22 and 23 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 24 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 and $13 for students and seniors.
When we meet psychiatrist Robert Smith (Mark T. DeNucci, Jr.), he is on edge as he fields strange telephone calls. What he doesn’t need is an unexpected visitor at the door, especially not another psychiatrist (Heath Diehl) who admits from the start he’s lying about everything he says.
But he has a proposition for Smith, which Smith has no interest in. Robert and Edward’s early conversation sounds like the set up for a comedy routine, but something far more complicated is lying in wait.
The visitor turns out to be Edward, a noted psychiatrist, who was convicted of the killing of one of his patients. She had fantasized about having an affair with him, and when she turns up dead, the police believe what she wrote in her journal. Edward was the one who found her body and takes some ill-advised actions which turn into evidence.
Once convicted, Edward says he does what any normal person would do, go on the lam. So now he’s living a double life with a new wife, Suzanne (Karen Noble).
Things spin out of control in Robert’s office.
We meet the psychic Lydia (Deb Shaffer), who helps Edward sort out his situation, sometimes having to force him, even wielding a toilet brush, to stay put.
There’s Irving (Garrett Hummel), an actor turned investigator, whom Suzanne put on Edward’s trail. He seems pretty inept, and like a couple other characters has two names.
It turns out that Robert has an identical twin, Sam, also played by DeNucci, who works as a security guard in the office building where this all unfolds.
Into this confusion steps a gangster (James Freeman) looking for a briefcase. For some reason, someone has ordered a pizza, delivered by a vodka chugging driver (Veronica Oliver) dressed as an extra large slice.
That triggers a phobia — everyone it seems has a phobia, all of which help to keep the story churning.
All of this plays into the plot hatched by Robert that unravels at the end.
The entire cast seems to be having a good time as they get to push the slapstick to the max. Diehl’s Edward is always ready to do something else that will only make his situation worse. DeNucci as Robert always seems a little shady. Yes, he’s right to turn down Edward’s scheme, but he doesn’t seem to be doing so for the right reasons.
That Shaffer’s Lydia with her thick Russian accent and malapropisms — “Let’s not jump over the conclusions” — is the voice of reason here says a lot. And it speaks to the lengths the Players go to keep their audience in stiches.
