New Review: Becky Shaw

For New York Press.

Here's the tease:

Letting loose a bull into a china shop is one thing when the merchandise is pristine. When the bull is lost and gentle, and the china already shattered, it’s hard to assert that the bull has done the harm.

Such are the metaphors undergirding Becky Shaw, the scorching, satisfying Gina Gionfriddo comedy that was commissioned by and premiered last year at the Actors Theatre of Louisville and now is being re-mounted Off-Broadway by Second Stage Theatre.

Continuing with the china shop metaphor, the play’s breakables are an elegant four-piece set needing a pair of scenes to be arranged. Suzanna (Emily Bergl) is the heartbroken daughter of Susan (Kelly Bishop), an ineffectual widow confronted by her honorary son, the caustic, unfeeling Max (David Wilson Barnes), about the family’s fast-fading finances and her late husband’s sexual peccadilloes. Although Suzanna and Max comport themselves like siblings (how Max came into the family is revealed superbly later on), he deeply loves Suzanna, despite some obvious intimacy issues. The scene ends with more of his withering sarcasm and the sexual consummation of their relationship.

Sphere: Related Content