Sharp wit and soppy endings – it’s the American way

Here’s something that continues to perplex me.

Here’s something that continues to perplex me. How is it that the best of American cinema and theatre is so often simultaneously sharp, sophisticated — and trite?

I’ve just been to see a tremendous new play at the Almeida in Islington, whose run ends this week. Becky Shaw has been a hit on Broadway and has enjoyed instant appeal in London too. It certainly appealed to me. Gina Gionfriddo has written a mordant, mostly cruel comedy of modern American manners, and the action and the repartee rattle along, intense, quickfire and merciless, with a brutality that leaves you breathless.

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Katy Balls

How much trouble is Rachel Reeves in?

This is not a theatre review, so suffice it to say that every one of the small cast is superb; and that it’s a story of family schism and family feeling, love, sex, money, marriage, dependency, psychosis and rejection.