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review John Patrick Shanley made his name writing a series of feisty, touching plays about people he knew and loved –- blue-collar New Yorkers who spoke loudly and carried big, broken hearts. Yet in recent years, Shanley has begun writing about people he apparently doesn’t even like –- the film industry leeches of "Four Dogs and a Bone", and the well-moneyed fools of "Psychopathia Sexualis". Perhaps it’s not surprising that "Dogs" and "Sexualis" have become Shanley’s two most commercially successful plays –- they’re snapshots of types, rather than intense portraits of human beings. They’re not "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea", "Italian-American Reconciliation" or "Savage in Limbo". Shanley still writes great characters; he just doesn’t seem to inhabit them anymore. However, Shanley’s recent scripts can cook -– in the right hands. And Santa Ana’s Alternative Repertory Theatre does a credibly funny job staging "Psychopathia Sexualis" in its Orange County premiere. It’s about sex, and socks. Arthur, a penniless artist (Zack Durant, a newcomer who gives a wonderfully intense performance) cannot perform sexually unless he holds or knows the whereabouts of his daddy’s well-worn argyle socks. However, his therapist, Dr. Block (Todd Fuessel), has taken the socks away. So, on the eve of his marriage to a strong-willed Texan named Lucille (Susan E. Taylor), Arthur calls on his buddy Howard (John Bolen), begging him to sign on as a client with Dr. Block for the purpose of stealing his socks back. The play unfolds in typical Shanley fashion, with one two-character scene trip-wiring the next. The trick with "Sexualis" is to get past the first two scenes, in which Shanley wastes time focusing on the utterly boring Howard instead of the psychologically interesting Arthur. But it’s the third and final scene in Act 1 that is the play’s tour de force, in which the sadistic Dr. Block dices and grates Howard’s psyche in hilarious ways. Fuessel has the strength and the uptown swagger to all but dominate Bolen in the scene, which is the desired result. Taylor also impresses. Her charmingly shaded Lucille is in many ways better than Park Overall’s turn at the role in the 1996 Mark Taper Forum staging. It’d be easy to play Lucille as either a hick or an avenger, but Taylor finds higher ground. You’ve probably read about ART’s recent financial redemption; the 13-year-old theatre was considering closing its doors earlier this year, but a $50,000 grant from a corporate sponsor has given it some daylight. This uptempo comedy, although far from John Patrick Shanley’s best work, is also far above Neil Simon – and here’s hoping it scoops up the bucks on its extended run. "Psychopathia Sexualis",
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