Tracy Letts's "Superior Donuts' at the Arden (2nd review)

The Arden Theatre's new production of Superior Donuts differs vastly from the Broadway presentation I saw in December 2009. (For that review, click here.) The fact that I enjoyed this as much, or more, indicates the play's enduring quality— and the excellence of this casting and staging.

When Tina Landau directed Superior Donuts in Chicago and New York, it was presented on a normal proscenium stage. Edward Sobel, who worked with the playwright Tracy Letts as dramaturge for the original, directs this Arden production with a thrust stage, putting audience members on three sides of the action.

In the original, the familiar actor Michael McKean played Arthur Przybyszewski, the aging hippie proprietor of a doughnut shop in one of Chicago's distressed neighborhoods. With his persona, and the strength of his characterization, McKean clearly was the central figure. The young man who came to work for Arthur was ancillary, in the dramatic sense, although Jon Michael Hill made a vivid impression in the part. The Arden's production alters this balance.

McKean and Hill were moderately extroverted, as is necessary in a Broadway house where some of the seats are at a much greater distance from the stage than they are here.

In contrast, the Arden's lead players are more subtle, and Arthur's character in particular travels a greater emotional distance, endowing the play with a stronger dramatic arc.

Going through the motions

Craig Spidle, as Arthur, is clearly beaten down— a former Vietnam era draft evader, withdrawn from society, barely going through the motions of everyday life. He continues to run the small business that was started by his parents, but he's too lethargic even to accept a generous buy-out offer from the Russian immigrant who runs a DVD establishment next door and wants to expand. Often Arthur will just stay home and not even open his shop.

Spidle quietly reflected the essence of a man who is passive but still idealistic and moral, capable of coming to life again with proper nurturing. His acting was so subdued on my visit that the audience couldn't hear all his words, especially when he faced away from us (an inevitable tradeoff with a thrust stage). He also seemed so reticent that he made Mister Cellophane in Kander and Ebb's Chicago seem like a show-off. But the choice paid off in the middle of the second act when Arthur underwent a catharsis and the play took some unexpected turns.

In search of family

Enter Franco, a black kid who wants a job. On Broadway, Hill played him with fast-talking exuberance. Here James Ijames adds an understated maturity, a quiet yearning to create a family-like connection.

It always seemed to me that the playwright identified most with this character. Franco, like Letts, is a writer. Letts moved from the plains of Oklahoma to the big city, where he found a new "family" (in his case, as an actor and playwright with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company). Ijames as Franco was funny while also seriously dedicated to pulling Arthur out of his apathetic protective shell.

Letts, the sometime actor, created terrific parts for other actors, and the Arden cast excelled in them. David Mackay was the colorful Russian businessman next door, and Pete Pryor was an exemplary debt collector for the mob. Jennifer Barnhart and Brian Anthony Wilson embodied the very human and multi-faceted police on the beat, while Nancy Boykin created a touching presence as an alcoholic who frequents the shop. Ian Bedford and Jake Blouch were fine in shorter roles.

Ethnic rivalries

We needn't choose between Landau's Broadway staging and Edward Sobel's here. Both are valid. The material suffices to support either approach. I do know that I enjoyed the humor and was moved by the drama even more this time.

Letts's script stresses the contrasts among Chicago's various ethnic groups"“ Polish, Irish, Russian, black. Philadelphia is not so very different. For all the ethnic insults indulged in by most of the characters, the play's message is that isolation and inaction are unproductive; when your life becomes difficult, community can give you strength.♦


To read another review by Marshall A. Ledger, click here.
To read another review by Jackie Atkins, click here.
To read another review by Jane Biberman, click here.