Buffalo Theater: Watching people behave badly raises questions about love

By Lona LaChiusa
(Image above: Anthony J. Grande (Andrew) and Stephanie Warnick (Becky Shaw). All photos by Stonecrop Photography)

Alleyway Theatre’s entry into the Curtain Up offerings is the Buffalo premiere of Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo, recently receiving a lauded Broadway run. 

Written in 2008, the play is a roughly two-hour cringe fest into the relationships between five compelling and complicated characters—Max (Rick Lattimer), Susanna (Amanda Funiciello), Susan (Tammy Hayes McGovern), Andrew (Anthony J. Grande) and Stefanie Warnick as Becky Shaw.

Watching people behaving badly in no-holds barred familial confrontations and speaking brutal, often darkly funny truths—Becky Shaw is a play worth seeing. Each character explores their unique emotional needs in codependent and borderline toxic relationships, and the play asks: Does unconditional love really exist or is all love ultimately manipulative and transactional?

The Becky Shaw of the title is a loose reference to the central character of the William Makepeace Thackeray novel Vanity Fair, about a penniless orphan who uses her wits to ruthlessly ascend from her station.

In the play, a blind date set-up of Max and Becky by the married couple goes horribly wrong, and the audience starts to wonder if underprivileged Becky is an unlucky, lonely woman or a master manipulator.  As Becky, Warnick walks a tightrope of wide-eyed vulnerability and social embarrassment to something darker and enigmatic, coming close to solidifying that duality.

Lattimer and Funiciello dominate the first half hour of the play in a quasi-”sibling” relationship that reveals much more. Funiciello’s Susanna is damaged goods—mourning the loss of her father (and the generational wealth along with him) and dealing with her family’s rather offputting, pragmatic response to that loss.

Lattimer’s Max is abrupt, abrasive and a bit abusive. Exposing the snobbery of class divide, and indebted to the family who took him in, success-driven Max exhibits emotional scarcity—letting the mask drop only when he’s with Susanna. His love and need for her becomes deeper than perhaps he even knew he was capable of. It’s a tough role and Lattimer is bitingly funny, but also immediately unlikeable, veering a bit one note at times.

As Andrew, Anthony Grande is the antithesis of Max, a safe, well-intentioned, gentle foil with a subconscious savior complex for damsels in distress. Grande exudes an easy-going, earnestly believable charm.

Playing family matriarch Susan as anti-nurturing, cutting, and pragmatic, Hayes’ unapologetic and politically incorrect observations stem from rich, white privilege and land hard on the audience more often than not.

Director Chris Handley’s direction could have used more layered nuance in the development of intimacy and emotional attachment. There is an urgency, a dangerous and primal tension that seems inconsistent throughout the play, sometimes making both the comedy and the pathos seem a little forced rather than naturally unfolding.

These characters are often their own worst enemy, and it takes real crafting to make us care, abhor, laugh and pity all at the same time. The results are uneven, but still worthwhile.

The set design by Tania Barrenechea is fluid and minimalistic,  given that the cast and crew have to quickly turn the intimate Alleyway stage into hotel rooms and apartments in New York City, Providence and Richmond.  

Becky Shaw is playing at the Alleyway Theatre now through Oct. 3.

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