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Directed by Peter DuBois, who also helmed Gionfriddo's Pulitzer finalist works Becky Shaw and Rapture, Blister, Burn, Can You Forgive Her? had its world premiere last April at the Huntington Theatre Co. in Boston where DuBois is the Artistic Director. It received what can only be charitably described as mixed reviews and it appears not much has changed in its current Vineyard staging. Where Rapture, Blister, Burn was an examination of women's changing roles in society, Can You Forgive Her? focuses its attention on the socio-economic choices two women make for financial security. The problem isn't Gionfriddo's ear for snappy dialogue, which is on full display in Can You Forgive Her?. It's the outlandish characters she's created combined with the situations she's placed them in which defy credulity. Tanya (an appropriately annoying Ella Dershowitz) is a young, single mother who's worked her way out of a modest debt with the aid of a self-help book aimed at women trying to control their finances. Tanya is a serious acolyte of the book and proselytizes its transformative powers to anyone who will listen, including Graham (Darren Pettie), her older boyfriend who's back in their New Jersey beach town to settle the estate of his late mother. Tanya and Graham are getting engaged despite the fact Tanya has serious misgivings. Even she can see the fact Graham hasn't had a job in six months and has a serious drinking problem are red flags.
It's in this maelstrom Gionfriddo's writing takes on an absurdist quality that, while amusing in Wood's capable hands, is at odds with the play that's come previously. What starts as realism veers off into black comedy before ending up in Christopher Durang territory. Imagine if Durang had written Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The play's ending, including a stupefying appearance by Sateesh in a Michael Myers mask from the Halloween films, results in an anti-climax in which Gionfriddo makes no comment or judgment on the outcome of her play. Miranda leaves with David to continue her life of financial support, and Tanya and Graham make-up and resolve to move forward with their relationship. What does she want the audience to think? Is it a feminist polemic? Is it a political statement? Or does Gionfriddo think it's enough to just present Tanya and Miranda's separate plights and let us draw our own conclusions? The problem is that, by the time we get to the end of Can You Forgive Her?, we've stopped caring.
Can You Forgive Her?
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