The remarkable thing about Good for Otto is the million-dollar collection of excellent actors assembled to perform in The New Group’s local premiere of David Rabe’s latest drama. Led by Ed Harris, the 14-member company involves such distinctive, award-winning artists as F. Murray Abraham, Amy Madigan, Laura Esterman, Mark Linn-Baker, Rhea Perlman, Kate Buddeke, and Kenny Mellman.
The sorry thing is that some of these artists have too little to do in Good for Otto, a loosely-knit sampler of psychological studies that proves to be a lesser work by the eminent author of Sticks and Bones and Hurlyburly.
Rabe’s contemporary story centers on Dr. Michaels (Harris, radiating quiet empathy), a psychiatrist who heads a mental health clinic in a small town in the Berkshires. During the play’s three-hour-long series of mostly disassociated vignettes—a few of them more vivid than others–Michaels and Evangeline Ryder (Madigan, a kindly listener), another therapist, are seen counseling a variety of patients.
Some of their cases are Psychology 101 in sophistication: A middle-aged woman (Buddeke, always an authentic presence) suffers from headaches throbbing in the center of her forehead. Then it is revealed how her melancholy son (Michael Rabe) committed suicide by shooting himself in the center of his forehead.
So it goes: A smothering mom (Esterman) drives her son (Mellman) into becoming a hoarder. A retired businessman (Abraham) bored into depressive inertia, can’t get out of bed. An anxious gay man (Maulik Pancholy) over-medicates himself into a dangerously paranoid state.
Oddly enough, the title figure turns out to be a pet hamster kept by an autistic man (depicted rather obviously by Linn-Baker with a fixed stare and a hand involuntarily clawing at his thigh). Otto will be undergoing veterinary surgery, which increases his owner’s usual level of anxiety. Employing Good for Otto as a title weirdly implies that the drama’s afflicted individuals are guinea pigs being treated for better or worse.
Perhaps Rabe might have been wiser to concentrate his skills on telling only one story. The compelling one here regards a tween girl (Rileigh McDonald) who persistently mutilates herself, much to the horror of a clueless foster mom (Perlman). Michaels’ attempts to get the youngster better treatment than his clinic affords gets mired in the mumbo-jumbo spouted by the insurance company representative (Nancy Giles). The good doctor meanwhile is plagued by nightmare memories of his mother (Charlotte Hope), who killed herself when he was a boy.
The monologue-driven drama’s points of view confusedly shift, but director Scott Elliott overcomes the potential disorder through his staging. Designer Derek McLane provides an airy room in two shades of green, where the actors (and some spectators) can be seen seated on mismatched chairs along its three sides. This proximity allows for fluent transitions between scenes–aided by Jeff Croiter’s meaningful lighting—while presenting the community of everyday people that the clinic treats. Every so often, the actors/characters break into singalongs of yesteryear tunes that Michaels loves such as “On Moonlight Bay.” The motivation for such pleasant interludes is slim, but at least it gives spectators an opportunity to see Ed Harris valiantly tootling on a tuba.
Good for Otto opened on March 8 at the Pershing Square Signature Center and continues through April 15. Tickets and information: thenewgroup.org.
