BECKY SHAW Delivers a Wild Roller Coaster Ride

Four People, Zero Self-Awareness, Endless Schadenfreude as Alleyway’s BECKY SHAW Delivers a Wild Roller Coaster Ride

BECKY SHAW, a play by Gina Gionfriddo, directed by Chris Handley, starring Amanda Funiciello, Anthony J. Grande, Rick Lattimer, Tammy Hayes McGovern, and Stefanie Warnick.  Regular Performances through 10/3 are Thu- Fri 7:30, Sat 3:00 & 8:00, plus Wed 9/30 at 7:00 (!). Presented by Alleyway Theatre, 716-852-2600, alleyway.com. Buffalo Rising’s Daniel Lendzian has a podcast interview with the playwright.

RUNTIME: 2 hours 20 minutes including one intermission

THUMBNAIL SKETCH: In this Buffalo Premiere of a Pulitzer Prize Finalist and Tony Award Nominee, when Susanna (Amanda Funiciello) sets Max (Rick Lattimer) up on a blind date with Becky (Stefanie Warnick), her husband (Anthony J. Grande) Andrew’s co-worker, Susanna has absolutely no idea how much emotional chaos this will unleash, almost tearing apart a lifelong friendship while almost breaking up her marriage. It’s an edgy, dark, razor-sharp, funny play that provides a full evening of schadenfreude (delight in another’s misfortune, especially Max’s).  As the publicity states: “It’s about four people who think they’re perfectly fine and are absolutely not.”  

THE PLAYERS, THE PLAY, THE PRODUCTION:  After waiting in the wings for 18 years, this 2008 play finally got to Broadway to critical raves, and now it gets a Buffalo premiere, thanks to the Alleyway Theatre (the one in the old bus/police station which shares an alley between Pearl and Main with Shea’s).  It’s their mission in life to bring us new plays or, in this case, plays new to Buffalo.  And, as they put in a slip in the playbill, “New plays, and the theatres that make them, are at a real crossroads.  We’re working hard to bring in audiences who are excited about something new.  We get it.  It’s easier to go see something you already know the ending to.”  With BECKY SHAW, the ending is something you’re going to want to talk about, whether at the Alleyway’s lounge or on the way home.  And there will be no spoiler alerts here.

But leading up to that ending (which I’m not going to talk about) is one helluva roller coaster ride.  It all starts in a NYC hotel room where Max, a financial adviser, and his sort of half-sister Susanna are arguing, as apparently they often do, about mom’s will, which they are in town to discuss.  And the newest complication is that mom (Tammy Hayes McGovern), now a widow, has gotten herself a much younger, not very responsible, boyfriend.  “You mean, my lover!” she tells them, to their consternation.

Max has risen in his profession by being oriented to “face the facts” and he is a little short on the social graces.  Now, when dealing with Susanna, he’s not really wrong in that approach since she is somewhat flighty while very prone to indecision.  She grudgingly accepts that about herself and does seem to welcome a “handler” in her life and Max, despite his protestations, does revel in handling things.  He’s a thinker and a planner and a doer.

It turns out that Susanna, on a ski trip (that Max had recommended as a way to do something instead of sitting around grieving the loss of her father) she had met a sweet man in touch with his feelings.  Andrew, in turn, recognized Susanna as someone who needed to be rescued.  Of course, Max, the thinker-planner-doer was appalled.

Andrew’s co-worker, Becky Shaw, very much down on her luck, is also someone whom Andrew sees as needing to be rescued.  (Andrew has “a type.”)  And the more that Andrew tells Susanna about Becky, the more Susanna thinks that Becky could also use a handler, a thinker-planner-doer in her life, and so she sets up the blind date, warning that Max can be verbally abusive at first.  And of course, he is, immediately probing to find the inconsistencies in Becky’s sorry story, but they go ahead with the date.  And then he ghosts her.  Did he think this one through?  We’ll never know.

Any “amateur psychologist” (and aren’t we all) will delight in seeing certain traits exhibited, including what’s called “Help‑seeking / help‑rejecting behavior” where someone repeatedly creates or worsens problems, seeks support, then rejects solutions so the caretaking cycle continues.  This is how Susanna behaves around Max.

For Becky, it’s what they call “Victim stance / victimhood manipulation” where a person positions themselves as chronically wronged or overwhelmed to elicit sympathy, protection, or rescue.  It’s sometimes called “Instrumental helplessness” where someone acts incapable or creates avoidable problems because the resulting rescue provides emotional reward, attention, or control.

And it’s the “control” element that reminds people of another famous Becky and that’s Thackeray’s manipulative social climber Becky Sharp in his 1848 novel “Vanity Fair.”  As the title suggests, the novel skewers the vanity of the upper classes.  In this play, Becky Shaw brings out the worst behavior of the other characters.  

This is a dream cast, with each actor having been the lead in other shows on other stages I’ve seen, which is important because, although the play is named after one of them, they are all leads here.  This is an ensemble that works well together.

I took particular delight in the moveable set designed by regional theater designer Tania Barrenechea with its sliding panels and drop-down bed, with much of the furniture moved by the actors themselves, a nice touch in that it both speeds things up creating some momentum, as well as keeping us inside the fiction, creating sort of shared ritual.  I’ve always responded warmly to that.

I also responded well to lighting designer Emma Schimminger’s end of scene “freeze frames” or “flash photos” capturing an actor or actors in stark white light.  It was new and edgy and in keeping with the spirit of the play.  Very clever.

The costumes by Amaya Mack were serviceable but I loved Becky Shaw’s date night outfit and hair (wigs by Mary Jakiel).  They were “just so wrong” they were perfect for her character.  I thought that Max’s outfits could have been a little snappier, maybe more off the rack at Barney’s instead of off the rack Target, but perhaps this was his off-the-clock look.

Note 1: The match-making role of Susanna here at the Alleyway is mirrored across Main Street where the Irish Classical Theatre is presenting Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1815 novel “Emma.”  In that novel and play, Emma’s choices of occupation are limited, and so she turns to matchmaking to occupy her clever mind.  I think that Susanna’s motivations aren’t quite as innocent as Emma’s, but both women tend to make a hash of things.

Note 2: Knowing that Rick Lattimer and Stefanie J. Warnick when off stage are “an item” made the on-stage spats even more delicious.  I haven’t enjoyed something like that since real-life married couple Kelly and Steve Copps faced off in both GOD OF CARNAGE (the title says it all) as well as THE LAST FIVE YEARS.

Note 3: The Alleyway has taken on producing seven (7!) either new or new to Buffalo shows this season, far more than most, and they are THE HAUNTING OF HOOVERTON HOTEL (a sort of Scooby-Doo sendup by two local playwrights), along with two seasonal shows A CHRISTMAS CAROL (adapted by Daniel F. Lendzian) and THE HATEFUL ELF, plus THE RINK AT THE END OF THE WORLD, also AHOY, AHOY and Stephen Sondheim’s musical comedy THE FROGS (freely adapted from Aristophanes’ play).  Visit Alleyway.com for details.