BWW Reviews: Sardonic and Witty, BECKY SHAW Makes Area Premiere at Round House Theatre

By: Jun. 04, 2013
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When newly-minted Round House Theatre Producing Artistic Director Ryan Rilette announced that Gina Gionoffrido's Becky Shaw would replace another show - selected by his predecessor - in the theatre company's current season, I was pretty interested to see how it would turn out. I had the chance to check out the 2009 New York premiere at Second Stage Theatre and was largely impressed with not only the cast, but the play itself. Not your run of the mill kind of schmaltzy and cutesy romantic comedy, this play veers toward the edgy and dark side while offering valuable insights on human relationships and related boundaries/rules of the road with the help of some richly drawn characters.

Round House Theatre's area premiere production of Becky Shaw is, likewise, not a run of the mill kind of season closer. The company's season started with a bang with the disturbing but relevant Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, and it ends with one too. Impressive production values - Daniel Conway's multi-functional revolving set is deceivingly simple at the outset, but transports audiences to a variety of venues in the blink of an eye - and a strong ensemble cast ready and able to take on 'here and now' contemporary comedy under the keen direction of Patricia McGregor make this one to see.

We first meet Suzanna Slater (a highly believable Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan) wallowing in self-pity in a hotel room. She's grieving the loss of her father and the rest of her personal life isn't so awesome either. Her relationship with her know-it-all and slightly self-absorbed disabled mother Susan (an elegant yet acerbic Brigid Cleary who makes the most of her small role) is, per usual, on the rocks - made worse by some revelations about her father. Financial wiz Max (an appropriately smarmy and self-confident Will Gartshore) - Suzanna's 'not-really brother' - is there for both of them in a very practical way.

As time passes, things don't get less complicated for Suzanna. They get more complicated, particularly when it comes to Max. Nonetheless, she finds love in an artsy guy, Andrew (played with sensitivity by Rex Daugherty), who makes coffee and writes and is drawn to women in distress. An attempt to set Max up with Becky Shaw (Michelle Six, who gives a deceptively simple performance), a 30-something Brown dropout with little money and an initially perplexing past, sets the stage for an even more complex situation for all involved. A one-night stand, a robbery at gunpoint, emotional blackmail, revelations of racist and classist thoughts, betrayal and suicide attempts are only some of the situations they encounter.

The beauty of this play is that once you think you know the characters and come up with plausible answers to what they might do/how they might react to a particular situation and identify reasons for their behavior, Gionoffrido turns the table and/or adds another layer to the plot. The unexpected nature of the deceptively simple plot is what makes this play so much better and different from the many situational comedies (or dramedies) written for the stage in recent years that have examined human familial and romantic relationships - and how they can go so wrong. Gionoffrido's snappy (and sometimes un-PC) dialogue is another reason this play; it gives voice to the already complex characters we see on stage that can be you or me or all of us. It's witty without being too much/ too unrealistic.

The Round House cast deals with all of the snappy comebacks their characters are tasked to say with nary a pause or second thought. The believable chemistry between them - particularly the 'kind of brother and sister, but something more' vibe between Keegan and Gartshore - allows the dialogue to flow naturally and seem unrehearsed (in a good way). Gartshore and Six also command the stage in the scenes preceding and following their date and can give us all memories of any awkward and kind of creepy dates we've had in the past.

Great play, great acting, something unexpected? Who can ask for much more than that?

Running Time: 2 hours and 20 minutes, including one intermission.

Becky Shaw plays through June 23, 2013 at Round House Theatre Bethesda (4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD). For tickets, call the box office at 240-644-1100 or purchase them online.

Photo Credit: Danisha Crosby

Photo Caption: Rex Daugherty (Andrew Porter), Will Gartshore (Max Garrett), Michelle Six (Becky Shaw) and Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan (Suzanna Slater) in Round House Theatre's production of Becky Shaw.



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