Everett Beekin

"My sister may she rest in peace, gives bubkas". So, a character named Ma retorts as she rinses the dollar bills her daughters give her in Richard Greenberg’s new play EVERETT BEEKIN. Living in the 1940’s on the Lower East Side, Ma, is an obstinate old lady with one sustaining aphorism, "My daughters let me advise you one thing — don’t be related to anybody."

In this narrative about family trees, we follow four generations of women from one family, two of whom we’ll meet in Act II, where the setting has now changed to Orange County, California circa the late1990’s. How the lives of these women interact with three generations of men all known as Everett Beekin is a narrative tour de farce and the recipe which makes this story so intriguing.

The eight generations of Everett Beekins to whom we are introduced are a lineage of inventors, each more successful than the next. They are the lighthouse that beckons to the wandering sisters, as they strive to create their own lives without Yiddish, without a true heritage.

In this compelling and deeply personal modern play in which the past collides with the present, we observe multiple reflections of our selves. Remarkably, Richard Greenberg achieves his story with exceptional wit, and a complex set of relationships that are subliminal to the action. The acting too is highly enjoyable. Bebe Neuwirth as Anna, a girl from the Lower East Side who married right and later Anna’s daughter, a typical social climber at home on the sands of the Pacific is understated, at home with her character. Robin Bartlett is robust as her more challenging sister and Kevin Isola delivers an unexpected performance as Ev #8, a valley boy ashamed of everything he inherits.

That’s This Week Off-Broadway. I’m Isa Goldberg.