Psych Drama Company blurs art and life in Sarah Ruhl's ‘Stage Kiss'
She is thrilled to be cast, only to discover that 'He,' her leading man (Kenneth Kelleher), is an old flame she hasn't seen in years. The titular 'stage kiss' refers to the need for actors to balance professionalism with believability when they perform love scenes. But in the case of He and She, despite their initial awkwardness, the overwrought love scenes they act out in the potboiler quickly heat up their offstage romance, despite their offstage commitments: she is married to a banker named Harry (Eric Cheung) with a teenage daughter (Melissa Myers), and he has a schoolteacher girlfriend named Laurie (Julia Trueblood).
Actors Kenny Kelleher and Wendy Lippe play on-stage — and off-stage — lovers in the Psych Drama Company's production of Stage Kiss.
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While it may seem a little inside baseball, director Rani O'Brien takes Psych Drama Company's mission to heart, gently drawing the audience into this fast-paced comedy. You don't have to be a performer (or psychologist) to recognize those moments when your desire for an outcome (whether personal or professional) blinds you to the red flags your rational mind is waving in front of you. Other productions of 'Stage Kiss' lean into the farce, playing up the absurdities of the play-within-a-play with the surreal reunion of the former lovers. O'Brien mines that humor, with some hilariously deliberate overacting from David Kleinman as Kevin, the eager understudy who is way over his head during the love scenes. Both Lippe and Kelleher infuse their characters with personality, with Kelleher giving his actor some dash and diffidence before bringing down the house with some complicated choreography on crutches. But the intimacy of the Black Box theater, and O'Brien's choice to stage the performance in the round, helps her balance the laughs while illuminating some of the play's deeper themes of vulnerability, uncertainty, and regret.
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In Act II, the acting pair have run off to his grungy apartment and have been cast in a new play, written by their indecisive director (Zachary Ryan Murphy) of 'The Last Kiss.' This play dramatizes a darker love story between a prostitute and a member of the IRA, leavened by Lippe and Kelleher's comically broad accents. But Lippe's beautifully calibrated performance allows her character to reconcile rosy memories of her first love with the reality that led to their breakup, as if she's slowly waking from a dream.
The comedy's resolution may feel a bit pat, but it doesn't lessen the impact of Ruhl's keen interest in the joys and heartbreak embedded in the emotional roller coaster of love. Ruhl's gift, beautifully realized by this Psych Drama production, is her ability to wrap the excitement of first love and the commitment of mature love in an evening of delightful comedy.
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STAGE KISS
Play by Sarah Ruhl. Directed by Rani O'Brien. Presented by Psych Drama Company Inc. In the Plaza Black Box Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts. Through Feb. 23. Tickets $45. 617-933-8600,
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