Review: How to be the Perfect Couple at Otley Courthouse

“…unexpectedly complex emotional journey…”

How to be the Perfect Couple by Katie and Jon Rand, Otley Courthouse

By Sean Sable

I’m a people watcher. Okay, I am a curtain twitcher, too. I am endlessly fascinated by other people: what they do, what they eat, what they think. And I would love to tell you that my fascination ends with a harmless enjoyment of watching people live different lives to my own. Certainly, that is part of it. But I also love a bit of scandal. A morsel of gossip about what others are getting up to. I promise there’s no malice in it—I don’t want people to have a dramatic turn just to entertain me and I always wish the best for others. But if there is a whiff of something juicy afoot, I just want to be in the know. It’s this slightly spiky impulse that drives my thoughts whenever I pass a self-help book.

Rarely do I stop and think: maybe this will make me a better person (and in all fairness, maybe I should), but rather my first thought is: I wonder what skeletons are hiding in their closet? Do this smiling husband and wife promising to teach me that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus or how to Fight Better, really have a good marriage—or are they just like the rest of us? Messy little busybodies who should keep their eyes on their own papers. One of the things that drew me to Jon and Katie Rand’s How to be The Perfect Couple was the promise of an answer to this question. I’m pleased to say, it was exactly as scandalous as I’d thought it would be.   

Written and performed by real-life married couple Jon and Katie Rand of Randmade Productions, and directed by Karl Hansen, the show casts them as Dr Veronica and Professor Robert Stenk, two marriage psychologists delivering a lecture that turns into a lesson in “do what I say, not what I do”. This original two-hander is the culmination of a long-kept promise. Jon and Katie met studying drama and made a vow back in 1995 to one day write and perform a comedy together. Thirty-one years and two grown-up sons later, they are making good on that vow, bringing to their script everything they’ve learned about what works (and doesn’t) in a relationship. Currently heading to Buxton Fringe in July, catching How to Be the Perfect Couple at Otley Courthouse was a wonderful opportunity to get in early on what is sure to be a very successful showing.

The production bills itself as a comedy and when I walked into the theatre, I admit to being braced for a show that might be a little one-note. The concept of a bickering couple who are desperately trying to hold it together in a public setting is a well-worn trope. But I was surprised to find a show with significantly more emotional complexity than your standard meltdown comedy. The show opens with the expected laughs. Dr. Veronica Stenk is here to help us fix our marriages, her wisdom delivered via a series of slides mostly rehashing pop-psych favourites like the Gottmans. She is aided by her husband, Professor Robert Stenk, developer of the dubiously ethical “Stenk Tank” and co-author of the book An Enduring Marriage. As Dr. Stenk attempts, in vain, to keep her lecture on track, she endures the endless upstaging, product placements and sideways comments of her husband, all under the guise of “helping.” Fractures soon appear, and the sniping begins, one gritted-teeth comment after another, until it reaches rupture.

But where things really surprised me was what happened after the breach. Whilst holding tight to its comedy core, we were taken to a more vulnerable place, working through how the couple got there and what might happen next. The narrative was neatly built, and at one moment, I was certain that the Stenks had no business in the same room together, much less remaining married. I despaired that the rift was irrevocable. But by the end, I found myself cheering (and a little teary-eyed) as they wound us through an unexpectedly complex emotional journey that reminded us that in fights, no one is 100% right or 100% wrong.

Jon and Katie Rand both work as voice-over artists and their acting chops were evident from the first line. Jon’s Robert is the perfect blend of clueless and self-involved, a manchild hiding from his responsibilities under the guise of professional aptitude. Katie’s Veronica is exasperated and at times scolding; she is long-suffering, yet attempting to find connection whilst only offering resentment. They are perfectly believable as both villain and victim and I must admit (in my curtain-twitchy way) that I wondered how much they brought their own understanding of marital conflicts into the performances. They were both completely committed to their roles—an absolute must for this style of comedy to land. In the more sensitive moments, they delivered pathos that had much of the audience feeling a little twist in their hearts.

As an early production, staging is minimal: a podium, a side table, books, and a well-cued slideshow with its own subplot (and gun!). Costumes were professional business attire throughout, though how they were worn shifted subtly as the evening developed. Sound and lighting are functional and occasionally show the limits of their budget, but the Rands’ vocal projection, almost certainly unmiked, was frankly remarkable. There is a little fine-tuning to be done as the show hits the road, but these were minor details in an otherwise enjoyable evening.

At the close of the show, Robert Stenk asked the audience, as a favour to his wife, to please not tell anyone about the performance. With respect to Professor Stenk, I’m afraid I cannot oblige. How to Be the Perfect Couple is heading to Buxton Fringe in July, and you’d be losing out on all the good gossip if you missed it.

How to be the Perfect Couple plays at Otley Courthouse on 29 May.

Sean Sable is a Yorkshire-based freelance writer and editor specialising in Young Adult and Horror fiction, frequently at the same time. When she isn’t buried under a pile of books and manuscripts, she is looking for her keys and having extensive one-sided conversations, in Swedish, with her deaf cat. You can find her online at: www.seansable.co.uk