Becky Shaw

by Gina Gionfriddo

Overview

“A tangled tale of love, sex and ethics among a quartet of men and women in their 30s … as engrossing as it is ferociously funny, like a big box of fireworks fizzing and crackling across the stage from its first moments to its last.” New York Times

From the moment that Becky arrives overdressed for her blind date with straight-talking Max, it's clear the evening won't go to plan. In the immediate fallout, Becky becomes an object of devotion for her boss Andrew, who appears to have a fetish for vulnerable women. In turn, Andrew's wife Suzanna turns to her step-brother Max for comfort, and their mutual desire begins to resurface.

A biting American comedy with sharp, witty dialogue about ambition, the cost of being truthful, and the perils of a blind date.

This Modern Classics edition features an introduction to the play by Julia Listengarten.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350146389
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	09/03/2020
Series:	Modern Classics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	104
File size:	194 KB

About the Author

Gina Gionfriddo is an American writer and two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Her plays include Can You Forgive Her?; Rapture, Blister, Burn; Becky Shaw; After Ashley; and U.S. Drag. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her television writing includes The Alienist, Angel of Darkness, House of Cards, and three incarnations of Law&Order.
Gina Gionfriddo is an American writer whose plays include Rapture, Blister, Burn; Becky Shaw; After Ashley; US Drag and Guinevere. She has won an Obie Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Helen Merrill Prize for Emerging Playwrights, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. In addition to writing, Gionfriddo has taught playwriting at Brown University, Providence College, and Rhode Island College.

Editorial Reviews

Gina Gionfriddo's comedy of bad manners, a tangled tale of love, sex and ethics among a quartet of men and women in their thirties, is as engrossing as it is ferociously funny, like a big box of fireworks fizzing and crackling across the stage from its first moments to its last…deftly plotted, scabrous and sharp-witted…” —New York Times

“The characters in Gionfriddo's blind-date-gone-bad black comedy share the potential to revolt…They're also subversively funny-and improbably charming. Grade: A.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Scathing, class-conscious comedy…Becky Shaw exerts a hypnotic pull, thanks in large part to the wonderfully witty dialogue and complex characterizations.” —New York Post

From the Publisher

Has the moral subtlety of Jane Austen but it yanks its characters' illusions down with the off-kilter ease that's usually the trademark of access-all-areas TV satirists like Larry David or Tina Fey.

Time Out London

Ferociously funny comedy of outrageously bad manners...From the start, you're riveted.

Daily Mail

It is dazzlingly written and studded with rapier-sharp lines.

Financial Times (of London)

It remains sharp and funny to the end, and presents its characters with the irony and wit of a latter-day Jane Austen.

Daily Telegraph