BWW Reviews: SCR Presents Dagger-Sharp BECKY SHAW

A great many wrong things can happen on a blind date, especially one between a couple of people that are such complete polar opposites of each other. But what happens when said blind date is not just an awful one... but, really, the worst blind date EVER? And, to top it off, it's a blind date that keeps coming back! Such is the premise of Gina Gionfriddo's engrossingly funny play Becky Shaw, which recently had its West Coast premiere at South Coast Repertory and continues there through November 21. This off-Broadway hit-a recent nominee for the Pulitzer Prize-tells the story of one such blind date that is so awful and so doomed from the start that it actually sets off this chain reaction of searing arguments, intense revelations, and jaw-dropping events that forever alters the lives of everyone in the periphery. Make no mistake, though. This is one seriously hilarious play-but not for the reasons you may think.

Becky Shaw's blind date starting pistol isn't your typical sitcom-ish comedy set up, where hilarious high-jinks follow a couple who meet cute, but then proceed to fall face-first on a puddle of mud as we all go "awwww." Nope. Far from it. Rather, the only mud slinging across the stage are found during the curiously mesmerizing exchanges between its vividly vicious characters.

Every one on stage is deeply flawed, fiercely jaded, and ripe for our judgment and disdain... sounds like a barrel of laughs, right? Seriously, though, it absolutely is. But instead of turning off the audience-though, some, undoubtedly, might be-the often bitingly snarky back-and-forth conversational match games are what draws us in to this comedy of unpleasant behavior. The laughs are plentiful, that is, if such characters don't completely turn you off.

As marriage, friendship and family loyalty all come crumbling down all around, we all bear witness to the verbose implosions, brought to life Gionfriddo's witty, richly unabashed exchanges among a dysfunctional collective. This dark comedy certainly mines most of its well-earned laughs from the characters' vehement stances on their immovable points of view. You begin to wonder.... are they all just selfish? Idiotic? Naive? Stubborn? Insane?

The play's opening prologue-inside a drab, authentically ordinary hotel room in New York City-introduces us to the play's core "family." We meet Suzanna Slater (Tessa Auberjonois), a fiery, manic young lady that screams "high-maintenance" and, certainly, "high-drama." Soon, oily slickster Max (Brian Avers) enters the room like a stalking python, quickly snatching away the TV remote from Suzanna's hand like a scolding parent. Max's words roll of his acid tongue like a sharp dagger, always eager to stab. But there's a palpable electricity between the two. Between their loud, bickering back-and-forth, there's an obvious sexual tension.

But then we are thrown a surprise. It seems Max is actually a loyal friend of the Slater family: when he was just a child, Max was unofficially adopted by the Slaters after his newly-widowed father could no longer handle raising him on his own. Still feeling obligated by them taking him in years ago, Max has grown up as the defacto "man of the house," so to speak...virtually a member of the family. We later deduce that Max continues to look after the family's affairs much like the eldest sibling would in traditional families. His controlling, overpowering authority oozes throughout the play.

On this particular day, Max has arranged (or, rather, summoned) for Suzanna and her mother Susan (Barbara Tarbuck) to New York, in the hopes that they will finally confront the realities of the financial situation that has been left behind for them by the recent death of Suzanna's father (Susan's huband). Apparently, to everyone's shock, the head of the Slater household kept many secrets during his final years of life-including running the family business to near financial collapse. Suzanna bawls. Susan dismisses the news. Max wants to literally slap some sense into both of them.

Domineering Max decides that, for Susan, the best solution was to enable her new, much, much younger boyfriend-spoken about but never seen during the play-with the means to properly care for her. This is already quite a task, since Susan is not only in her twilight years, but also because she suffers from Multiple Sclerosis. Suzanna, a basketcase of bittterness, neurosis and low self-esteem insists her mother's "lover" is nothing but a gold digging opportunist. Their angry argument culminates to an almost expected climax.

Fast forward many months later and we find ourselves in the modestly-appointed Providence, Rhode Island apartment that newlywed Suzanna shares with her new, super sweet husband Andrew (Graham Michael Hamilton). She seems less of a whirling mess now, and we learn that she is studying psychology in nearby Brown University. In Andrew we find a kind, gentle, seemingly honorable young man-an interesting contrast to the louder, more aggressive Max. (Continues on Page 2)

The couple are nervously prepping the arrival of Max, for whom they have arranged a blind date with Andrew's hard luck office chum Becky Sharp (Angela Goethals). Max arrives and the palpable tension returns between Suzanna and Max, visible to all in the room. Soon, Becky-oddly quirky and thoroughly awkward-arrives and almost immediately, the audience will quickly wonder what ever possessed Suzanna or Andrew to set her up with the mean, abrasive Max (we discover later that Suzanna didn't completely disclose the details about her family friend). But Max-almost as if smirking at the very audaciousness of this challenge-agrees to go ahead with the date, even though he (and everyone, including the audience) knows that disaster is afoot.

And, yes, the date indeed becomes a nightmare for all concerned, including Andrew and Suzanna, whose own seemingly amiable marriage is shaken by the snowballing effects of the disastrous Max-and-Becky pairing.

Directed intuitively by Pam MacKinnon, Becky Shaw is an intriguing sort of comedy, an unexpectedly wicked surprise that catches you off guard, as you find yourself bursting with laughter with almost every witty phrase. How else can you explain being riveted by a story essentially populated by such, well, less than desirable characters?

You'll run the gamut of emotions throughout... You'll laugh out loud as you wickedly agree with someone's truthful, though mean-spirited opinions. You'll feel exasperation over a character's faulty, sometimes shocking decisions. You'll even feel slightly uncomfortable (or better still, slightly giddy) with some of the savagely venomous name-calling.

This is especially true of Max. In the real world, the mean-spirited Max would probably come off as a real d--chebag most people will despise. But in this sharply-written play, he gets the lion's share of the laughs, despite his dictator-like power over the Slater women. Not everyone's going to like the guy, but, for some, it may be uncomfortably alarming that many of the laughs he gets stems from our winking agreement with his despicable assertions about the dumb-ass things people do around him. If this was on television, we'd probably be screaming at our sets... "Seriously!! Really?!"

Max is a vile-spewer for all intents and purposes, but, yet, underneath that hardened surface, you'll find a man driven by his desire to "help" out of sheer loyalty. It's a noble cause, albeit, delivered in the most vicious of ways. Tough, straight-up talk? Maybe. His black heart is really quite mesmerizing, if mostly for his easily-flung insults that pierce truthful daggers into everyone's open wounds. Many may find Max utterly despicable as a character... but many of those same people may be surprised how much time they'll spend laughing with him throughout the play. But lest you lump all the nastiness in Max's inbox solely, be aware that the rest of The Players are not immune from questionable behavior either. The play deftly sheds every character's truths layer by layer, revealing everyone's seemingly well-meaning but ultimately selfish motives.

Becky Shaw's sharp dialogue is aided by a truly brilliant cast. Though each possesses surface characteristics that are hard to miss, we are ultimately surprised by the subtlety of acting changes we experience as the play peels away at each layer revealing each person's buried traits. As Max, Avers delivers a riveting performance by Avers. It's a loud performance, to be sure, but yet appropriately so. It's hard to pry your eyes off of him in each scene as he acts and reacts to everything happening around him. He, not surprisingly, induces most of the laughs, launching one wicked barb after another.

Auberjonois-a hoot of a scene stealer in SCR's Crimes Of The Heart a few months ago-offers up an excellent range of emotional highs and quiet lows throughout with her portrayal of Suzanna. As her kind-hearted husband Andrew, Hamilton greatly transcends what could have been just a run-of-the-mill, nice-guy routine with a heartbreaking transformation that will be endearing to some and met with pity by others. As Susan, Tarbuck is wonderfully gruff, yet nicely feisty. And, finally, as the title role, Goethals is absolutely intriguing to watch. The character of Becky itself is written as a surprising mix of kookiness, sneaky smarts and even a subtle creepiness, and Goethals tackles all and more with a captivating ease. Each glance, each half-formed smile, even each pause of a phrase arouses a lot of curiosity... and plenty of moments to shudder.

Overall, Becky Shaw is an intelligently hard-charging comedy that hooks you right from the start as you succumb to one riotously funny line after another. It's a twisty, riveting play that upends the notion of romantic love, gender relations, and even personal morality. More importantly, it's particularly thought-provoking, too.

All Photos by Scott Brinegar/SCR. Top: Angela Goethals & Brian Avers.
Middle Set, Top: Graham Michael Hamilton & Tessa Auberjonois. Middle Set, Center: Angela Goethals & Brian Avers.
Middle Set, Bottom: Brian Avers, Tessa Auberjonois & Barbara Tarbuck.

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Performances of Becky Shaw at South Coast Repertory continue through November 21, with Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday evening performances at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. Discounts are available for full-time students, patrons 25 years of age and under, educators, seniors and groups of 10 or more. There will be an ASL-interpreted performance on Saturday, November 20, at 2:30 p.m.

POST-SHOW DISCUSSIONS: Wednesday, Nov. 3 & Tuesday, Nov. 9
Discuss the play with members of the cast during FREE post-show discussions led by South Coast Repertory's literary team.

Tickets, priced from $20 to $66, can be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or by visiting the box office at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa.

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