Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo, an analysis for production

Part of a series, “By Nancy”

Max: Unless you’re Gandhi or Jesus, you have a limited sphere of responsibility. You have a plot of land and the definition of a moral life is tending to that plot of land. 

TPT Commentary: Having spent my time as a psychotherapist, I have seen my patients improve their lives by acknowledging their feelings, and understanding and modifying their thoughts and behaviors. I challenge those who claim that their offensive, selfish behaviors are just them being “real” or pragmatic. I do, however, encourage them to balance the risk of interpersonal vulnerability with healthy boundaries. In the play, Suzanna says, “I know what goodness is. It’s kindness that asks nothing in return.” There are, however, those who need more than we can or should be willing to provide. That’s a very good rule for both the giver and receiver. Crudely put, there’s a happy medium between being an asshole and an idiot. 

Gina Gionfriddo’s Becky Shaw presents five imperfect people who drift about this asshole-idiot continuum.  All are poor mixtures of raw vulnerabilities, poor boundaries, and irregular self-awareness who meet the catalyst of the too-broken, too-needy titular character that agitates and activates this often harsh and acerbically funny two-hour solution. 

Recommendation:  Highly recommended, but probably not for our local season ticket patrons. Language, situations, and multiple settings, which must be changed quickly and effortlessly, may make this play best for companies with receptive adult audiences and ample budgets. If your theatre has a “off-season” offerings which might push the envelope, try it out. The craftsmanship required to bring this production to the stage requires more than three performances and spare ticket sales.

Summary: Dramatists Play Service (edited): A newlywed couple fixes up two romantically challenged friends. When an evening calculated to bring happiness takes a dark turn, crisis and comedy ensue in this wickedly funny play that asks what we owe the people we love and the strangers who land on our doorstep.

Themes: self-awareness, intimacy v. safety, compassion v. healthy boundaries, adult dating and relationships, grief, length of mourning, family/belonging, unhealthy family dynamics, protectiveness of adult parents, financial stability, legitimacy of psychotherapy, racism, interracial relationships

Cast: 3w, 2m: 

Centenary Stage Company,  Hackettstown, New Jersey, casting call (exp. 12/7/2015)

2 Females, 30-39

1 Female, 60+ (with multiple sclerosis, yet ambulatory) 

2 Males, 30-39

Culturally conscious casting opportunities: All characters are non-specific to ethnicity; however, a character recounts being in interracial relationships with black men and (offstage) is a victim of a crime perpetrated by a black man. 2 characters are mother and daughter. All characters are specific to gender. 

Running Time: Acts: 2, Scenes: 9

2 hours, 20 minutes with intermission, Round House Theatre, Bethesda, MD

Sets: 7 locations with swift changes: Act 1: NY hotel room (3-star) with an entry door; apartment in Providence, RI with a door to a bedroom and an office; Act 2: nondescript street scene (no set? Drop only?); Providence, RI apartment (reasonably priced); Boston hotel room (4-star); cafe (table/chairs?); RI Apt. again; living room of a nice middle class home (a character has stage directions to look out a window to see someone after they have left the house, and there seems to be a door to the street). These settings, if poorly executed, would detract from character and story clarity. Reviews have given hints to streamlining of settings using minimal props and rear projections or drops. 

Costumes: Contemporary to 2008: urban professional, urban/suburban casual, fancy cocktail dress, nice evening dress

Props: Nothing unusual: contemporary to minimally furnish above

Period notes: The Iraq war (2003-11) is discussed. Some phone calls appear to be from landlines. Smartphone apps (maps/reviews) are not used when it would be currently common: “…print out that Federal Hill map.” 

Playwright:

Biography:  IN THE BALANCE, 12/15/2021,

Awards and Nominations:

Theatre:

The Pulitzer Prize for Drama (finalist) – 2013. Rapture, Blister, Burn

Drama Desk Awards – 2009 – Outstanding Play, Becky Shaw

Outer Critics Circle Awards – 2009 – John Gassner Playwriting Award Gold Star, Becky Shaw

The Pulitzer Prize  for Drama (finalist) – 2009, Becky Shaw

Outer Critics Circle Awards – 2005 – John Gassner Playwriting Award, After Ashley

Television:

Online Film & Television Association, Best Writing in a Drama Series (TV)- 2013, House of Cards

Writers Guild of America, Best New Series-2014, House of Cards

Writers Guild of America, Drama Series (nominee)- 2014, House of Cards

Writers Guild of America, Drama Series (nominee)- 2012, Boardwalk Empire

Reviews: 

New York, 2009

London, 2011

Urbana, IL (home of University of Illinois), 2011

San Francisco, 2012:

Knoxville, TN, 2018: photos may give some inspiration for setting solutions

St. Paul, MN, 2020

Substance use: Wine is served to and used responsibly by adults. A character says, “going for a nightcap.” 

Sex: Discussions about pornography, man/woman kissing on bed with suggestion of suggestion of inevitable intercourse, “getting laid,” suggestion that offstage characters were formerly in a homosexual relationship, “underground sex-torture dungeon” used sarcastically, “NAMBLA” used sarcastically, revelation that two sets of characters had one night stands, talk about a mature mother’s sexual relationship with a younger man

Nudity: none

Violence: (offstage) Characters are robbed at gunpoint. A character says, “I get pictures in my mind of black men…being tortured” and, “I think about cutting myself with a knife.” A man grabs a woman’s arm roughly.  Offstage non-suicidal self-injury is discussed. 

Coarse language and other possibly controversial subject matter: 75% of the coarse language is from one character: frequent variations of “fuck” and “shit” which are seldom used for sexual intercourse or defecation, a remark based on a racial stereotype (Japanese objectivity over emotionality), suggestion that a character when a child was dressed like a “gay hustler,” (offstage) characters are robbed at gunpoint, character reflects on a being a victim of crime perpetrated by a black man and failed relationships with black men, racism, “pictures in my mind of black men…being tortured,” 

Rating: R for coarse language, mature topics, and sexual references 

TPT Source: Humana Festival 2008: The Complete Plays, Adrien-Alice Hansel & Amy Wegener, Eds., Playscripts, Inc., NY, NY, ISBN 0970904681, on loan from Harper College Library, Palatine, IL

Purchase: $13.00

Royalties: All inquiries concerning rights, including amateur rights, should be addressed to, Olivier Sultan, Creative Artists Agency, 162 5th Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, New York 10010 (as of 2009 printing). 

FEE: $105 per performance

Format inspired by the sadly suspended operations of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre then enhanced by TPT 

A Distance From Calcutta by P.J. Barry: An Analysis for Production

Buddy: You’re waiting for a prince to come along and carry you off on his white horse. (Pause) I’m no prince. I’m more like a frog,” (p 100)

On a page of canned quotes, I found:
“Everyone deserves to laugh, to be happy, and to be loved…but not everyone gets what they deserve.”

How true. Our cultures and our courts have been crammed with controversy concerning the right to marry since at least 1888 (Maynard v. Hill, USA). I have known same gender, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural/religion married couples. Before the twentieth century, in the United States and beyond, marrying (and re-marrying) outside one’s race, reflective gender, culture, religion, and even social-economic class was considered taboo, forbidden, even illegal. What if you loved someone, but due to “what is proper” you couldn’t give yourself to them completely and publicly?

Originally produced in 1993, and set 70 years before that, A Distance from Calcutta by P.J. Barry dramatizes this century-old conflict but sets it far away from the modern court and melee of marriage rights. The play never intended to be included in the debate. Here the action rises gently, almost reluctantly, but sweetly, and reaches its sad and complex climax in a barely middle class Irish Catholic home in the village of Jericho, Rhode Island. Our equally-Caucasian star-crossed lovers are a “spinster” and a handyman with a “learning handicap.” Viewed through a contemporary lens, the rejection and prohibition seem almost petty. The plot is complicated with several conundrums. Maggie, the maiden sister’s brother has married a woman considered outside his social class (a teacher no less!). Buddy, the handyman, is not only very mechanically inclined and resourceful, but also a veteran who is emotionally perceptive with a keen memory for facts and conversations. He’s just popularly and locally known, by his own admission, as “not smart.”

There were then, and still are, no laws prohibiting their lives together. Still yet, there softly speaks the question, “Would YOU want/allow YOUR sister/daughter/self to marry a man so particularly “special?” What would people think?

Cast: 3 women, 2 men
Set: Single interior: 1923 middle class home: living/dining and visible 2nd floor bedroom
Costumes: Approximately 3 changes for each. Some “Sunday clothing.” Pregnant belly.
Royalties: Minimum Fee: $75 per performance
Running Time: unable 1 hours, 59 minutes

Pros: Small cast with 2 good, 1 excellent part for women 35- 58 and an excellent starring role for a non-traditional male lead. One set; fits in most small theatres. It is an excellent starting point for conversations after the theatre and about equality. NOT SET IN NYC!

Cons: There is little action and the play depends much on dialogue and understated characters. The play has had no recent regional productions to spur interest.

Censorial concerns: Implied sexual intercourse.

Provenance:
Produced at least twice in NYC, once in Newport Beach California.

Playwright:
http://pjbarry.net/Biography.html

Reviews:
Fair: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/25/theater/review-theater-the-ties-that-bind-and-bind-too-tightly.html

Harsh: http://articles.latimes.com/1996-02-27/entertainment/ca-40655_1_newport-theatre-arts-center

Recommendation: The more I write about it, the more I like it. It would be best as part of a series of plays about issues of equality and/or disability. Being that it was proposed to be part of series of pieces set in Jericho, RI ( After the Dancing in Jericho, And Fat Freddy’s Blues), perhaps it might be part of a series of “visits” by a theatre company over one season or multiple seasons, not unlike The Talley Trilogy by Lanford Wilson.

Highly recommended reading: Theatre Alberta’s guide will assist you in finding plays tackling issues related to physical or mental disabilities.

Purchase:
http://www.samuelfrench.com/p/1250/distance-from-calcutta-a

Available for lending from Illinois State University and Eastern Illinois University