The trouble is The Madrid is not about Becca; she’s a supporting character. The play is about her best friend Martha, played by the admirable Edie Falco. Martha has disappeared from her job as a kindergarten teacher and her loving home with fellow instructor John and their offspring the recent college grad Sarah. Martha cashes out her life insurance policy and takes up residence at the titular establishment, a nearby rundown apartment building with noisy neighbors and cracked walls (realized with appropriate sleaziness by set designer David Zinn). Martha doesn’t appear to have much ambition beyond being on her own and hanging out at a local bar where she secretly meets Sarah with whom she still wants to maintain a relationship.

Flahive, a writer and producer of Falco’s excellent Showtime series Nurse Jackie, has failed to develop Martha, John, or Sarah sufficiently to justify their position at the center of the play. We just know that Martha yearns to be free of family ties and has a history of running away. Despite Falco’s considerable talent, Martha comes across as selfish and disconnected. There is no internal conflict between her desire for freedom and her love for her daughter, which is stronger than her ties to John. Her husband is just a lovable lug with a fondness for history, and John Ellison Conlee cannot do much with the skimpy material except look sad. As the grown child torn between two parents, Sarah is the most developed of the family, and Phoebe Strole fiercely vivifies Sarah’s confusion, anger, and need to return to normalcy. There are also strong efforts from Frances Sternhagen as Martha’s cold mother and Christopher Evan Welch as the needy Danny.