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All the world's a couch

From an American in Austria, stand-up group therapy
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By Steffen Silvis
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
December 12th, 2007 issue

A User's Guide to Sexual Frustration

Performed by Gregory Fuller
When: Dec. 15, 16, 17 and 19 at 7:30
Where: Všebaráčnicka rychta, Tržiště 23, Prague 1
Tickets: 220–280 Kč, available at the venue
For reservation info, see www.pragueplayhouse.com

COURTESY PHOTO
No joke: Fuller has seen the post-performance results.
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COURTESY PHOTO
Where better than Vienna to invent stand-up group therapy? A User’s Guide to Sexual Frustration began life as a cabaret seminar, wherein Viennese shrink Bernhard Ludwig would take the stage to sort out the sexual problems of his audience. The idea was so original that Ludwig soon found he’d created a second career for himself, and his stage act is now seen widely throughout the German-speaking world.
An English version will premiere in Prague this week with Vienna-based American actor Gregory Fuller assuming the role of public sex therapist. “Two years ago I had a girlfriend in Innsbruck who worked as a psychologist,” Fuller explains via e-mail. “One night she played a CD of the show and said, ‘This is incredibly funny. You should perform it in English.’
“I started researching the piece,” Fuller continues, “and in May I happened to walk by a theater in Vienna where the show was being performed. After the show, I introduced myself to Professor Ludwig and told him I would like to do the show in English. Kismet. We met the following week, and decided it could work.”
User’s Guide depends upon audience participation, though as a group rather than individual cases (and who, other than an exhibitionist, would submit to that in a room of strangers?). “At various points in the show, I ask the audience questions,” Fuller explains. “They’re expected to respond truthfully, but I make it easy. The questions are multiple choice.”
The audience’s answers come in the form of humming. “If you agree with ‘A,’ hum now,” Fuller says. “If you agree with ‘B,’ hum now. Humming is general and anonymous, and since you don’t have to move your lips, nobody can really see how you’re responding.”
This group activity comprises the first portion of the piece. During the interval, audience members are invited to write questions on index cards — pink for girls, blue for boys. The task of the second half is to try and figure out the answers as a group. “The show has lots of little ‘aha’ moments,” Fuller says. “Penetrating glimpses into the obvious, so to speak, which often can really improve your relationship and sex life.”
Fuller is a native Californian who has lived and worked in Vienna since 2000, even doing stints at the Austrian National Theater. “I’ve worked in Vienna in just about every capacity — director, set and light designer, stage manager for operas and musicals,” Fuller says. “This year I quit multitasking, and 2007 has just been a performance year, which is great.”
As the good professor has already cornered stage-bound sex therapy in Germany and Austria, Fuller, after launching his version in Prague, is planning to take to the road in other countries. “There is talk of tour dates,” he says. “Budapest, Riga, Brussels and Amsterdam. In England, either Brighton or London. There’s even talk of taking the show to Los Angeles,” which sounds like an ideal match of material and mindset.
How effective is the show? “I saw it again a couple of weeks ago at Professor Ludwig’s invitation, and it was really interesting to see what happened at the end,” Fuller recalls. “All the singles were immediately hanging out at the bar, while all the couples were out the door in a flash. The couples seemed to take the show as sort of like two hours of foreplay.”
Still, one wonders if there are risks involved, since what’s revealed in the course of the show might lead to some serious re-evaluation of relationships and breakups. Fuller doesn’t say. But, as for the woman who first introduced him to User’s Guide, “I’m not with that girlfriend anymore,” he admits, which may be the best testimony to the therapy’s effectiveness.

Steffen Silvis can be reached at ssilvis@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (12/12/2007):

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