In the 1970's, Harvey married self-described psychotherapist
Saul Newton, leader of the Sullivanians, a Manhattan left-wing free-thinking collective whose members lived together with their children communally in three buildings on the Upper West Side. Harvey, who had left acting and become a playwright, founded the Fourth Wall Repertory Company, a political theater group in the East Village. All productions, which were made between 1978 and 1985, were based on plays written by Harvey, and the members of the community were required to support the production. Some began to leave due to requirements and social structure within the group and those who had spouses and children who remained filed many divorce and custody suits in the 1980's, during which the Sullivanians were exposed to much publicity, with claims that the group had become a psychotherapy cult whose leaders had control over every aspect of the members' lives, separating parents from children and encouraging polyamorous relationships. The publicity and the revealing of the practices of sexual freedom in the group led to their eventual dissolution, along with the repertory company.
