Stevie Budd

Stevie Budd runs the front desk at the Rosebud Motel, dry and unimpressed, exactly the wrong audience for the newly bankrupt Rose family's theatrics. She sizes up David within seconds of meeting him, offers no sympathy and no apology, and clearly finds the whole spectacle of these people quietly hilarious.

Emily Hampshire underplays everything, which is what makes it land — a raised eyebrow doing the work another actor would need a monologue for. The writing trusts her deadpan to carry real feeling underneath, so the friendship that grows out of mutual exasperation with David never feels like a swerve, just a door quietly opening.