There’s a creative writing exercise that I sometimes play around with. Yes I admit to having dreams of, after for so many years of being a regular thearegoer, one day writing a piece worthy of production. The exercise involves creating some quirky characters and imagining them at a dinner party. If the dinner party sizzles, then you might be onto something. The next step is to take away the scaffolding of the dinner party situation, come up with a clever plot, and then you just might have something to work with.
I’m sure that playwright Gina Gionfriddo is blissfully unaware, and without any need of a quirky writing exercise, however how is this for an interesting group of characters to put around a dinner table!
Meet Max, a hard-nosed, cynical Manhattan financier, played deftly by Rupert Reid. To Max, everything is about the bottom line. He does not go in for feelings. Max has an appalling track record with women. He’s what they call a short-timer, only has relationships with women for a couple of months maximum, and then moves on to the next victim. Max is one of the George Benson, ‘she was just another string on my guitar’ kind of guys.
Anna Lise Phillips plays the fragile, needy, devious title character. Becky is in her mid-thirties, a beautiful woman but without any means. She is fearful of being left on the shelf and is desperate to snare herself a man.
The vivacious Catherine Moore plays the hip, articulate, sensitive, again thirties something New York chick, Suzanna.
Matthew Zeremes is great as Andrew a softie, respectful poet/writer type. He’s into rescuing vulnerable women.
Rounding out the terrific cast is the masterful Sandy Gore as the sage-like, sixties something, Susan, whose husband has recently departed this life but this hasn’t stopped Susan from finding a new man, a bit of a loser who is currently spending some time in the Big House.
It’s over to you to see the play, and see the relationships and issues that the playwright weaves between the characters to create engrossing theatre.
Anna Crawford assuredly directs the two hours plus traffic of this eclectic group of characters on the intimate Ensemble stage.
Gina Gionfriddo’s BECKY SHAW opened at the Ensemble Theatre, 78 McDougall Street on Wednesday 31st October and the season runs Saturday 1st December, 2012
© David Kary
4th November, 2012
Tags: Sydney Theatre Reviews- BECKY SHAW, Ensemble Theatre Kirribilli, Gina Gionfriddo, Sandy Gore, Catherine Moore, Anna Lise Phillips, Rupert Reid, Matthew Zeremes, Sydney Arts Guide, David Kary