Thursday, November 7, 2024

Anything goes

Toledo Repertory Theatre’s “Edgy Rep” series usually takes a more recent, contemporary play that might not have the drawing power to sustain a two or three week run due to material that audiences may find slightly… well… ” edgy” (ie. not of the mainstream). Usually, this is a pretty good policy since most of these off-the-beaten-track plays are not very well known and don't have the pedigree and history which draw audiences to  the Rep's mainstage shows.
However, with Gina Gionfriddo’s 2008 play Becky Shaw, the powers that be at the Rep may wish that they pulled the trigger on a full run.
Is Becky Shaw a quirky little play that qualifies as “edgy” under the Rep’s definition? Absolutely! But it’s the kind of quirky that makes you laugh, makes you think and, repeated viewing, will make you feel better about yourself. For indeed, it's hard to find a reason to cheer on any of the characters in this play. While not completely unlikeable or without human merit, they are surely people that one would find a reason not to hang out with after work. Having said that, the script of Becky Shaw is funny, dark, enlightening and all those things that hardcore live performance fans love about great theatre!     
You see, Becky has emotional needs. She so wants to upgrade her standing in society. The conundrum is that she will use any means necessary to have her needs met and raise her societal position. And the other characters in the piece aren’t really much better. In this tale of tangled love, ambition, the ethically challenged and a blind date gone so horribly wrong that it almost wrecks the marriage of the couple who set the date-ees up. It’s a play that dispels the notion that love is a many splendored thing, but also shows the power of vital and important theatre when it takes chances and risks that say to an audience, “go with me on this, it will take you someplace very unusual. It will be worth it!”
Connected writer with a pedigree
Playwright Gionfriddo, who has spent many years as a writer on television’s Law and Order has some amazing source material here. It’s no coincidence that Becky Shaw shares her name with the “anti-heroine” of William Makepeace Thackeray's epic novel, Vanity Fair. (Okay, be honest, how many people thought that Vanity Fair was only a monthly magazine where you could read the secret diary of Barack Obama’s old girlfriends? Class stuff, eh?). Thackeray’s Becky Sharp and Gionfriddo’s Becky Shaw (also evoking another class conscious playwright, G. B. Shaw , thanks for asking!) share lives of quiet desperation in worlds where the haves and the have-nots are distinctly separated by. . .oh, about 1%.
Becky Shaw was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Barrymore Award winner and has garnered strong critical acclaim due to it’s opening run at the highly regarded Human Festival in Louisville, KY and Second Stage Theatre in New York. It’s a very unusual and engrossing play from a very unusual and gifted playwright.  
Toledo Rep’s production of Becky Shaw performs on Saturday night, May 26 only at the 10th St. Stage, 16 10th St. at 8pm.
Tickets are $10. 419-243-9277. www.toledorep.org.

Toledo Repertory Theatre’s “Edgy Rep” series usually takes a more recent, contemporary play that might not have the drawing power to sustain a two or three week run due to material that audiences may find slightly… well… ” edgy” (ie. not of the mainstream). Usually, this is a pretty good policy since most of these off-the-beaten-track plays are not very well known and don't have the pedigree and history which draw audiences to  the Rep's mainstage shows.
However, with Gina Gionfriddo’s 2008 play Becky Shaw, the powers that be at the Rep may wish that they pulled the trigger on a full run.
Is Becky Shaw a quirky little play that qualifies as “edgy” under the Rep’s definition? Absolutely! But it’s the kind of quirky that makes you laugh, makes you think and, repeated viewing, will make you feel better about yourself. For indeed, it's hard to find a reason to cheer on any of the characters in this play. While not completely unlikeable or without human merit, they are surely people that one would find a reason not to hang out with after work. Having said that, the script of Becky Shaw is funny, dark, enlightening and all those things that hardcore live performance fans love about great theatre!     
You see, Becky has emotional needs. She so wants to upgrade her standing in society. The conundrum is that she will use any means necessary to have her needs met and raise her societal position. And the other characters in the piece aren’t really much better. In this tale of tangled love, ambition, the ethically challenged and a blind date gone so horribly wrong that it almost wrecks the marriage of the couple who set the date-ees up. It’s a play that dispels the notion that love is a many splendored thing, but also shows the power of vital and important theatre when it takes chances and risks that say to an audience, “go with me on this, it will take you someplace very unusual. It will be worth it!”
Connected writer with a pedigree
Playwright Gionfriddo, who has spent many years as a writer on television’s Law and Order has some amazing source material here. It’s no coincidence that Becky Shaw shares her name with the “anti-heroine” of William Makepeace Thackeray's epic novel, Vanity Fair. (Okay, be honest, how many people thought that Vanity Fair was only a monthly magazine where you could read the secret diary of Barack Obama’s old girlfriends? Class stuff, eh?). Thackeray’s Becky Sharp and Gionfriddo’s Becky Shaw (also evoking another class conscious playwright, G. B. Shaw , thanks for asking!) share lives of quiet desperation in worlds where the haves and the have-nots are distinctly separated by. . .oh, about 1%.
Becky Shaw was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Barrymore Award winner and has garnered strong critical acclaim due to it’s opening run at the highly regarded Human Festival in Louisville, KY and Second Stage Theatre in New York. It’s a very unusual and engrossing play from a very unusual and gifted playwright.  
Toledo Rep’s production of Becky Shaw performs on Saturday night, May 26 only at the 10th St. Stage, 16 10th St. at 8pm.
Tickets are $10. 419-243-9277. www.toledorep.org.

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