Review: North Coast Rep’s funny ‘Beside Myself’ a sci-fi farce

by Pam Kragen

In Paul Slade Smith’s world premiere play “Beside Myself,” a woman visits a mysterious clinic where she undergoes a secret brain procedure to cure what’s ailing her. Instead her mind is split into two alternate personalities with no control over each other’s inner or outer lives.

If you think that sounds like the plot of the Apple TV+ series “Severance,” I’m right there with you. But Smith combines the play’s sci-fi mental health treatment premise with the classic trappings of theatrical farce. The result, in a production that opened Saturday at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach, is a wacky, fast-paced comedy performed by a crack six-member cast.

Erin Noel Grennan leads the cast as Gemma, a kind but ultra-sensitive therapist who suffers from such extreme anxiety she can no longer leave her apartment. Then she sees an infomercial for a mystery cure at a nearby clinic. After ignoring the fine print in the patient agreement, she undergoes the procedure and is immediately transformed, but not in an entirely good way.

Gemma’s confidence is restored and she resumes her practice, but she’s occasionally callous with her patients and controlling with her milquetoasty florist boyfriend Colin, played with sweet timidity by Thomas Edward Daugherty. And when the other part of Gemma’s personality surfaces, the fight for control begins.

To say any more about the plot would spoil the surprises, but the real payoff in this play isn’t the science. It’s the farce.

A scene from North Coast Repertory Theatre's world premiere comedy "Beside Myself," featuring, from left, Alanna J. Smith, Matthew Henerson, Erin Noel Grennan (foreground), Christopher M. Williams and Jacquelyn Ritz. (Aaron Rumley) — A scene from North Coast Repertory Theatre’s world premiere comedy “Beside Myself,” featuring, from left, Alanna J. Smith, Matthew Henerson, Erin Noel Grennan (foreground), Christopher M. Williams and Jacquelyn Ritz. (Aaron Rumley)

As Gemma, Grennan does all of the play’s dramatic heavy lifting, but she’s also comedically fun switching between the two warring sides of her character’s personality.

Director David Ellenstein has assembled a strong quartet of farceurs who easily slide in and out of a multitude of characters, accents, funny wigs, moustaches, costumes and prop glasses while running in and out of the 25 doors on scenic designer Marty Burnett’s simple but effective set.

Actors Christopher M. Williams, Matthew Henerson, Jacquelyn Ritz and Alanna J. Smith play a whole community of characters, including the secretive Dr. Thatcher (Ritz), some of her past surgical patients and Gemma’s neighbors and apartment building superintendant.

Matthew Novotny designed sound, Alina Bokovikova designed costumes and Aaron Rumley designed sound. Peter Herman’s hair and wig design is also a key component in the farce, as well as Michael Wogulis’s kooky props design.

The play runs a swift two hours, with intermission, and ends up an upbeat note of healing and friendship. Beyond the laughs, the play does have a thoughtful message that all of us are made up of many parts, and what we sometimes perceive as personal weaknesses can often make us better humans.