Credit director James Gallagher and his strong cast for finding the humorous gold in them thar hills of whimsy and sentiment. In the wrong hands, the play could drown in its own cuteness. Bay Theatre Company finds the humor, irony and truth and underplays the stuff that’s too clever by half — just enough to make it work.
Dietz is a veteran dramatist (“Lonely Planet,” “Yankee Tavern,” “Dracula,” “More Fun Than Bowling”) and teaches playwriting and directing at the University of Texas at Austin. His plays have become a staple of regional theaters. In “Becky’s New Car,” he wades gently into the frustrations and vagaries of marriage, parenthood, adultery and grief.
Becky Foster (played by Artistic Director Janet Luby) lives in “an American city very much like Seattle,” according to Dietz and the playbill. The lights go up as she’s DustBusting her house, and she addresses the audience immediately, telling us her midlife tale.
She’s been married nearly 30 years to Joe (Jim Reiter), an easygoing roofing contractor. They have a son, Chris (Davis Chandler Hasty), who’s in his mid-20s and lives at home while protractedly earning a graduate degree in psychology. He does little to help out but stands ready with textbook diagnoses of everyone.
Becky is not unhappy, but she’s feeling antsy that her life has driven into a rut. She works at a car dealership where her colleague Steve (a droll Nigel Reed) grieves for his late wife, Rita, who was Becky’s friend. Becky remembers Rita’s theory that a woman who thinks she wants a new car really wants a new life.
Becky’s about to get both, at least for a while.
Into the dealership one evening walks billboard magnate Walter, played with particular polish and an amusing distractedness by Jim Chance. A recent widower, he wants to buy nine new cars for his employees. He also decides he wants Becky. He believes her to be a widow, and she can’t quite bring herself to disabuse him of this. As much as she loves Joe, Becky is intrigued.
Once she makes her fateful decision and tells her first lie, the plot thickens in amusing, pleasantly predictable ways that involve her son, Walter’s daughter (Elena Crall), clueless Steve, and, of course, her husband. Credit Dietz’s plotting skill with keeping the story afloat after intermission, once the lies have been told, the betrayal consummated and the guilt activated.
Luby plays Becky with a tentativeness that seems one part characterization and one part a touch of uncertainty in the role. Yet that uncertainty doesn’t really detract because Becky herself is so shaky about what to do.
The small, workable set (designed by Ken Sheats), squeezed into Bay Theatre’s intimate space, includes Becky’s dealership office, a dull industrial green, at one side. The other two-thirds of the stage is her family room, with a fireplace and cheesy wood paneling, a sofa, a coffee table and knickknacks. Scenes at Walter’s lakeside mansion are played downstage — close to the audience — with only a small platform and railing to indicate an entryway.
Eric Lund’s lighting design must not only follow Becky from place to place but also light her differently when she addresses the audience. Besides one or two cues that came a little late, this worked very well. The costumes by Christina McAlpine are classic Middle American attire, apart from a couple of evening gowns in one scene.
Dietz breaks a lot of theatrical rules in his comic confection, spun around infidelity, loss and struggle. The folks at Bay Theatre Company make good on his idea. They invite you into Becky’s messy life, and they are perfect hosts.
Horwitz is a freelance writer.
Becky’s New Car
by Steven Dietz. Directed by James Gallagher. Sound design, Andy Serb. About 21
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4 hours. With Alicia Sweeney. At Bay Theatre Company (275 West St., Annapolis) through Jan. 8. Visit www.baytheatre.org or call 410-268-1333.
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