Jackson Davies, Deborah Williams, and Cavan Cunningham. Photo by David Cooper.
Our next production at the Granville Island Stage is Becky’s New Car, by Steven Dietz. Becky is married. Check. With one son, in college. Check, check. Living a perfectly ordinary life. Check. But she wants more. When an unexpected offer for just that—from a dashing millionaire, no less—falls into her lap, Becky embarks on a comic and poignant joyride that may change everything forever.
Deborah Williams in Mom's the Word: Remixed. Photo by David Cooper.
The Canadian premiere of this wacky and wistful adventure brings together some of Vancouver’s best talents. Deborah Williams who you may remember as one of the creators and stars of the Mom’s the Word series of plays, plays the charming, albeit frazzled, Becky. Her husband is played by Cavan Cunningham, also known as Fitzy Fitzgerald on TV’s Corner Gas. Arts Club alum Jackson Davies plays our dashing millionaire – the polar opposite of his character RCMP Constable John Constable on TV’s The Beachcombers.
Jackson Davies in the Arts Club production of The Producers. Photo by David Cooper.
Becky’s New Car first premiered at Seattle’s ACT Theatre by way of a private commission from Seattle commercial realtor Charles Staadecker for his wife Benita, an ACT trustee. That led to the forging of ACT’s New Works for the American Stage, an innovative play-commissioning program that brings patrons and playwrights together. Read more about the play’s inception in this Seattle Times article here.
Director (and Arts Club Literary Manager) Rachel Ditor has a good idea of what is behind the show’s widespread appeal. “Not only is the play funny, but Becky’s predicament is surprisingly provocative. The play asks us to reflect on what it means to live life fully in your middle years when the stability and comfort you fought for can feel more like a weight than freedom. What do you do? Can you reinvent yourself? What are the costs of that? Becky allows us to laugh at ourselves, and to live vicariously through her adventures as we take a trip to that fantasyland that so many of us share from time to time in our lives: the magical what if… ?”
Becky’s New Car starts May 6th!
