Entertainment

Muddled ‘Love Therapy’ needs its head examined

Manhattan therapist Colleen Fitzgerald has an unorthodox twist on treatment: She sees only the patients she likes.

Good luck with that in this town.

And good luck to audiences at “Love Therapy,” Wendy Beckett’s muddled play, which opened Monday night at the DR2 Theatre.

The Australian playwright’s drama revolves around the awkward interactions between 34-year-old psychologist Colleen (Margot White) and her patients — or, as she prefers to call them, clients.

They include Brian (Christopher Burns), a high-strung businessman going through a messy divorce; Mary (Janet Zarish), a deeply depressed woman who recently lost her daughter and husband in a car accident; and Steven (David Bishins), a rugged, womanizing owner of a chain of bowling alleys whose wife has pushed him into therapy.

Lambasted by her supervisor for such “touchy-feely methodology” as hugging and spending too much time with her patients, Colleen finds herself hopelessly drawn to Steven, even though he says he chose her as his therapist because she isn’t his physical type. After she starts wearing the red lipstick he’s recommended and gives him a birthday gift, the relationship soon becomes, as therapists say, inappropriate.

Then again, so is nearly everything else Colleen does, whether it’s illegally dispensing meds to the possibly suicidal Mary or ignoring Brian’s potentially violent tendencies.

Colleen, who we learn has had a troubled upbringing and a damaging divorce, is clearly meant to be a sympathetic character. But it’s hard not to think of her as a poster girl for the saying, “All shrinks are crazy.”

The playwright — a practicing therapist in Sydney — juggles her multiple themes and plot line with the dexterity of a medical office receptionist overbooking appointments, making the ensuing melodrama seem contrived and dull.

One rare bright note is Alison Fraser as Madge, an Irish waitress who dispenses no-nonsense wisdom to Colleen and her patients. Even so, it’s a thankless role for the two-time Tony nominee.

Yet Fraser and the rest of the company do what they can with the material, especially Zarish, who doubles as Mary, the patient, and Colleen’s supervisor. And Jo Winiarski’s drab set is notable for one thing: How can you have a drama about therapy with no couch?