During the run of Becky's New Car last spring, Deborah Williams was leaving the Granville Island Stage lobby and found herself consoling a young woman who had just seen the comedy.
She was in tears. "Is that what marriage is really like?" she asked the show's star.
You have to work at it, Williams told her.
Sometimes it's not all bliss, as the show reveals, with the main character - a middle-aged woman named Becky, or Rebecca to some - bored with her husband, Joe; bored with her job at the car dealership;and bored with her need to please.
But one day at work, Becky's luck turns when she meets a handsome multi-millionaire who wants to sweep her off her feet, and her fantasies catch up with her.
Williams said she can identify with Becky in many ways as they are the same age, have been married for many years and have grown children.
But that's where the similarities end.
The actor and playwright said she's "lucky enough to have a job that I find incredibly stimulating and I get to go out and play different lives and be other people," she said. "I'm not going to the same job every day."
And she works hard on her relationship with her hubby of 25 years, citing communication as the key.
Despite the parallels, Williams researched the role. She hung out at a car dealership, talking with staff and customers to get a feel for the business and lingo. Williams also travelled to Seattle, where it was premiered by ACT Theatre in 2008.
But she's never see the play live.Rather, "I want to do my research into the script and figure these things out," she said.
The Arts Club Theatre production ran successfully at Granville Island and is now on tour, stopping this week at the Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam. It stars Williams (Mom's the Word), Jackson Davies (The Beachcombers, The Producers), Cavan Cunningham (Fitzy Fitzgerald from CTV's Corner Gas), Lindsey Angell, Hrothgar Mathews, Pia Shandel and Kevin Stark.
Williams said it's easy to keep the show fresh on the road as Becky "talks to the audience and every audience is different. It's so exciting for me every night to stand backstage and listen to what the buzz is - to get the sense of what the audience is going to feel like - and then going out and engaging with them."
Their reactions are varied, though. "It will remind you of your relationship or relationships that you know," Williams said. "It's really an honest piece.... Sometimes, I see husbands and wives hitting each other during the show, saying, 'See! That's what you do!'"
Becky's New Car, written by Steven Dietz, runs until Saturday, Feb. 5 at Coquitlam's Evergreen Cultural Centre (1205 Pinetree Way). Call 604-927-6555 for tickets.
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