Mother-daughter duo nail dysfunction in ‘Becky Shaw’

We all know about families that play together.

But what about families who do plays together?

Include Charlene and Rozanne Sher in the latter category.

Mother (Charlene) and daughter (Rozanne) share the stage in the dark comedy “Becky Shaw,” which continues at Art Square Theatre through April 10.

They’ve been acting together since they did “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Rozanne “wasn’t tiny — I was 12,” she recalls. (She played Shprintze, the second-youngest of dairyman Tevye’s daughters, while Charlene played — you guessed it — her on-stage mother Golde.)

The two have since worked together in “Kindertransport,” “The Last Night of Ballyhoo,” the female version of “The Odd Couple” and another Neil Simon comedy, “Rumors” — all presented by the Jewish Repertory Theatre of Nevada, which Sher co-founded.

But “Becky Shaw,” Gina Gionfriddo’s Pulitzer Prize finalist, is “not Neil Simon,” cautions director Ann Marie Pereth, who’s directing the production, presented by the Las Vegas theater company A Public Fit. “It’s darker than that.”

The action focuses on a newlywed couple, Suzanna (played by Rozanne) and Andrew (Mike Rasmussen) who fix up two romantically challenged friends: financial planner Max (Russell Feher), who’s been Suzanna’s best friend (and maybe more) since childhood. and the husband’s strange yet sexy co-worker Becky (Kelli Andino).

Beyond the expected date-from-hell comedy, however, “Becky Shaw” delves into dysfunction, family and otherwise.

And the on-stage relationship between Suzanna and her caustic, tart-tongued mother Susan (Charlene) is “totally dysfunctional,” Sher says in a pre-rehearsal interview.

“Contrary to our relationship” offstage, she adds, turning to her daughter for confirmation.

“It’s great because — even though the roles are not us — the dysfunction is and isn’t us,” Rozanne comments, likening their on-stage characters to “caricatures of some of our characteristics. There’s a little bit of ourselves in everything we do.”

As a result, she adds, “we can actually step out of the car and continue the conversation” in rehearsal. “It’s sort of fun. And scary.”

That connection is “something I noticed in the audition,” Pereth comments. “Because they’re related, they have an immediate history.”

Whatever their relationship offstage, Charlene and Rozanne definitely invest their “Becky Sharp” characters with edgy tension during a rehearsal where Susan and Suzanna face off.

As Suzanne (alias Rozanne) attempts to sort out her conflicted feelings — and, by extension, her conflicted identity — Susan delivers such withering pronouncements as “the heart wants what the heart wants” and “no good deed goes unpunished.” (Susan has multiple sclerosis and Charlene wields her character’s accompanying cane like a sword as she verbally skewers her targets.)

From time to time, Charlene misses a line or two. (It’s been a while since they’ve rehearsed this particular scene.)

Despite “all the blowing of lines, that’s the best you’ve ever done it,” Pereth comments following the run-through.

“It’s not too much?” Charlene asks.

“God, no,” the director replies, telling mother and daughter, “you’re both making discoveries simultaneously.”

In Rozanne’s view, “it’s actually healing and cathartic” to act in “Becky Shaw.”

Charlene agrees, noting she “can say outrageous things and get away with it.”

Then again, “it’s such a schizophrenic process” to be on stage, she adds. “Your mind is going in many different directions as the character.”

Or, as Pereth puts it, “one side of you is very involved in the moment” emotionally, while “the other side is thinking, ‘I have to cross (the stage) here and pick up this glass.’ “

Throughout, “Becky Shaw” keeps the focus on its sometimes contradictory, three-dimensional characters.

In “this play,” Charlene observes, “it’s the characters that interest and intrigue you.” (Following each “Becky Shaw” performance, audiences can share their reactions during post-show discussions, which can get “pretty provocative,” Pereth notes.)

Although Rozanne will be sad to bid Suzanna farewell at the end of “Becky Shaw’s” run, “it’ll also be a little bit of a relief,” she admits, “because she’s exhausting.”

Charlene, meanwhile, relishes her character’s “latitude to let it rip,” to “have no filter and be a little outrageous.”

At least onstage. Offstage, she adds, “I have a real life, a real world.”

Which is just as it should be, Pereth points out, noting that “good actors have to have a personal life.”

“Otherwise,” Rozanne concludes, “it’s not real, it’s fake.”

Read more stories from Carol Cling at reviewjournal.com. Contact her at ccling@reviewjournal.com and follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.