BECKY SHAW

DESIGNER: STEVEN BUTLER
LIGHTING DESIGNER: SCOTT ALLAN

The best laid schemes oft go awry. Max (Rupert Reid), a cynical straight-talking financier, and Becky (Anna Lise Phillips), highly strung and self-doubting, are hardly a perfect match. When Suzanna (Catherine Moore) and Andrew (Matthew Zeremes) set Max up on a date with Becky, no one could have predicted the horrifyingly hilarious outcomes. Suzanna’s recently widowed mother Susan (Sandy Gore) provides an acerbic commentary on money and class and the ethics of moral responsibilities. Sweet, funny and sharp, BECKY SHAW is peppered with moments of schadenfreude as the variously dysfunctional characters careen towards the implosive finale.

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:

“Crawford's well-balanced cast clearly have the measure of Gionfriddo's sardonic humour.

Phillips excels in the title role, by turns goofy, pitiful then edgy as Becky's passivity switches to something more passive-aggressive. Reid is very good, too, playing an archetype whose ruthless put-downs and non-PC pronouncements mask a fear of rejection rooted in a blighted childhood.

Moore and Zemeres winningly sound the comic notes in the hapless newlyweds and Sandy Gore expertly grabs our attention in the weighty walk-on role of Susan's multiple sclerosis-afflicted mother, who has developed her own acerbic insights on the give and take of human relationships.

All up, this is a smart piece of programming: a clever, non-patronising and open-ended comedy with obvious cross-generational appeal.”

Jason Blake, Sydney Morning Herald

"When I first read Becky Shaw I just wanted to put down the script and jump right into rehearsals, I was so excited. What struck me the most was the writing - it was almost like a new language, Gina Gionfriddo is so sparkly and crackly and contemporary. She writes for TV’s Law and Order and I think that element of suspense is built so beautifully into this piece that it just draws you in and doesn’t let you go."
DIRECTOR ANNA CRAWFORD