BECKY’S NEW CAR

BECKY’S NEW CAR – Written by Steven Dietz; Directed by Rob Mess.  Produced by Coal Creek Theatre of Louisville (801Grant St, Louisville) through March 15.  Tickets available at cctlouisville.org. 

One of the difficulties with staging this script is the speed with which it moves between locations and times.  With a standard full-built set, changing locations with speed becomes problematic.  Luckily, Coal Creek peeps are too clever to let that slow down the traffic.  They came up with five movable pieces of furniture and scenery that became everything the show needed – including two different front assemblies of cars.  This allowed the three Ninja stagehands to move things in and out of place in seconds – in most cases, not even adjusting the lights.  From living room to office to patio – slam bam!  This greatly enhanced the enjoyment of watching the show go from 0 to 60 in seconds. 

You hear about men having midlife crisis all the time; it’s rare to hear about the same sort of uncertainty raising its ugly head in the life of a woman.  We’re supposed to be the level-headed, self-aware, mature home-keepers.  So watching Becky’s slow dissolve from that role into a confused guilt-ridden wreck gave the audience that schadenfreude feeling we shouldn’t enjoy so much.  But do. 

Courtney Velarde, a new face in town, with her grimaces and open-faced honesty about her feelings and her predicament gave us glimpses of a young Carol Burnett.  She was equally at ease in engaging the audience in her travails as she was in conversing with her stage husband and son . . . and lover.  Accidentally walking in on a conversation between the two men in her life who were never supposed to meet each other did not result in an overblown double-take – just a quiet two-second look of shock and a slow backing out of the room.  Courtney knows how to create a big moment and to identify when one is not needed. 

A lot of that sort of thing comes from the director – in this case, Rob Mess.  There were a number of clever solutions to the script’s problems that must have come from the creative mind of Mr. Mess.  A drip in the ceiling became a turkey baster held high in the air by a Ninja.  Those little brilliant touches were dropped into the production randomly, but caused a smile or chuckle of recognition of the cleverness each time.  It was easy to see how the director, the actors, and the crew worked together to create the totality of this production. 

Ms Velarde was ably supported by Chris Martinez playing her easy-going husband Joe; JC Reyes as her still-living-at-home grown son Chris; and Max Cabot as her bumbling co-worker.  The cast is rounded by the people on the OTHER side of Becky’s life:  her new-found suitor Walter who has more money than he knows what to do with (somebody get me his number!); Walter’s daughter Kenni who knows her father’s weaknesses very well, and their neighbor Ginger who already has Walter’s phone number (darn!).  All bring their special joy to the stage and spread it around. 

Once again, I hate short runs.  But you’ve got one more weekend to catch this sweet and thoughtful piece up in sweet Louisville. 

A WOW factor of 8.5