Playwright Gina Gionfriddo is blunt about the main character’s shortcomings in Can You Forgive Her?, which will have its world premiere at the Huntington Theatre Company’s Calderwood Pavilion March 25-April 24. “She’s a very difficult, arguably unlikeable protagonist,” she says of Miranda, who’s searching for love, swamped by debt and fueled by anxiety and rage when she meets a stranger on Halloween. “It’s tricky when you have a character who’s made some very bad choices. You have to find the audience’s point of empathy and show them the flawed humanity of why those choices happened.” A two-time Pulitzer finalist for Becky Shaw andRapture, Blister, Burn, Gionfriddo has been tweaking the script with director Peter DuBois and hopes audiences will be open-minded about her dark comedy. “I think it’s OK to be entertained and intrigued by people whose actions you may despise. I think that we’ve gotten into a climate where we don’t want to depict characters that are ethically or morally compromised,” she says. “What I would say is ‘Give these characters a chance.’”
Spring into Action: Theater
By Matt Martinelli | Photo Credit: Aaron Epstein | March 12, 2016
Character Study
Playwright Gina Gionfriddo is blunt about the main character’s shortcomings in Can You Forgive Her?, which will have its world premiere at the Huntington Theatre Company’s Calderwood Pavilion March 25-April 24. “She’s a very difficult, arguably unlikeable protagonist,” she says of Miranda, who’s searching for love, swamped by debt and fueled by anxiety and rage when she meets a stranger on Halloween. “It’s tricky when you have a character who’s made some very bad choices. You have to find the audience’s point of empathy and show them the flawed humanity of why those choices happened.” A two-time Pulitzer finalist for Becky Shaw andRapture, Blister, Burn, Gionfriddo has been tweaking the script with director Peter DuBois and hopes audiences will be open-minded about her dark comedy. “I think it’s OK to be entertained and intrigued by people whose actions you may despise. I think that we’ve gotten into a climate where we don’t want to depict characters that are ethically or morally compromised,” she says. “What I would say is ‘Give these characters a chance.’”
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