The Village Bike

“She’s like the village bike. Everyone has had a ride.” Though that slang idiom doesn’t appear in the text of British dramatist Penelope Skinner’s 2011 dark comedy The Village Bike, now seeing its New York premiere via MCC Theater, it certainly could describe, for better or for worse, its protagonist. Becky is a thirtysomething woman whose sex drive has skyrocketed ever since she’s gotten pregnant. When her husband refuses to have sex with her, out of fear that he will hurt the baby, Becky must take some extraordinary steps in order to satisfy her needs. In Sam Gold’s production at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, rising indie film star Greta Gerwig plays Becky, a very suitable choice (on paper) if you’re familiar with her work, namely Frances Ha, a coming-of-age flick that she cowrote and also starred in. Yet Gerwig is ill at ease in this daring play that isn’t given the chance to fully express itself within the confines of Gold’s staging, which is focused on the wrong things.