Review: Becky Shaw
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Almeida Theatre, London N1
American Gina Gionfriddo's taboo-riddled drama is driven by a jet stream of East Coast wit. Max (David Wilson Barnes) is the acerbic adopted, financial wizard son of a family with big-money problems. His recently widowed, MS-riddled mother (Haydn Gwynne) has taken up with a red-neck drifter, and Max's relationship with Suzy (Anna Madeley) has few of the boundaries that exist between most brothers and sisters.
Gionfriddo is fascinated by callous choices people make, no matter how painful they are for others. The author's fellow American director Peter DuBois builds the narrative - sparked by a disastrous blind date between Max and the eponymous Becky (Daisy Haggard) - to frenetic, hilarious climax of bad manners.
The result may not be as devastating as Neil LaBute at his best, but this is still some of the best new American writing to make it over here in a good while.
(Tel: 020 7359 4404)
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