Tracy Letts once told me that his early plays were a “strong cup of coffee.” That’s an understatement. For the most part, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Bug,” “Killer Joe” and “August: Osage County” has a vision of mankind as a tribe of brutes -- squalid beyond redemption.
It’s kind of remarkable, then, that the Oklahoma playwright’s latest work, set in his adopted hometown of Chicago, finds glimmers of salvation in an unlikely place -- the titular donut shop -- where scruffy, all-but-forgotten members of society huddle for warm cups of joe, a sugar fix and the occasional stroke of grace.
“Superior Donuts,” which opens Horizon Theatre’s 27th season, is Letts’ most upbeat work: a ray of light after a very long winter, a gentle tribute to the burned-out, the lovelorn, the displaced and the disenfranchised. And since this is Letts writing in August Wilson mode, “Superior Donuts” is a tragedy-cum-balm-for-the-soul, a haunting dark comedy that affords a last-minute sparkle of promise for a man who has quite literally been robbed of his song. Like its characters, the story is a little frayed at the edges, a little unsure of its destiny. But it’s that rare theatrical work that causes a lump in the throat at the very thought of its sad inner core -- and its kindhearted outcome.
After posturing himself as the 21st century’s answer to Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill (see “August: Osage County,” coming to the Alliance Theatre in April), Steppenwolf Theatre's resident bad boy channels the Wilson of "Radio Golf" and "Joe Turner's Come and Gone,” but he also alludes to Chekhov, Beckett and the grisly Martin McDonagh. A lovelorn lady cop, a donut shop owner with an unpronounceable Polish name, a crassly ambitious Russian who is the neighborhood imperialist, a bag-lady clown who has lost nearly everything but refuses to be bitter, a couple of low-life gangsters and a young African-American man who is blindly optimistic: it’s a ragtag procession of humanity.
Directed by Jeff Adler, the show stars Chris Kayser as donut-maker Arthur Przybyszewski and the terrific Eric J. Little as his apprentice, Franco Wicks. It trots out a fine ensemble of character actors, including, among others, Lala Cochran as Officer Randy Osteen, Bart Hansard as the oleaginous Russian DVD store owner Max Tarasov, Bryan Brendle as the ulcerous hoodlum Luther Flynn and Nita Hardy as the homeless Lady Boyle. Cochran is in fine comedic form. Hardy breaks your heart. Hansard’s accent is a little wobbly. And Brendle makes for one good-looking slime bucket. (Kudos, too, to newcomer Sean Michael Moreno, who invests his man of few words with quiet solemnity.)
Letts is much less interested in plot or structure here than character, moral compassing, despair. Arthur’s sense of ennui is almost impenetrable -- until Franco charms his way into a job on the spot. Franco has written a novel on scrappy paper, and titled it “America Will Be!” -- from a Langston Hughes poem that addresses some of the same corruption and social inequity that preoccupies Letts. The writing unspools like a ’70s sitcom, only with blood, revenge and some cringe-inducing fight choreography (by Scot J. Mann).
Designers Moriah and Isabel Curley-Clay create an old donut hole that is layered with decades of patina and scrap paper. Anna Jenny’s costumes are authentic and occasionally inspired.
“Superior Donuts” is Letts in soft and squishy mode, but it’s an emotionally nourishing, sweetly devastating season opener for Horizon Theatre. With the economy taking a toll on local theaters, maybe you'll consider buying a dozen tickets and passing them around.
Theater review
“Superior Donuts”
Grade: B
8 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays. 8:30 p.m. Saturdays. 5 p.m. Sundays. Through March 27. $20-$25. Horizon Theatre, 1083 Austin Ave., Little Five Points. 404-584-7450, horizontheatre.com
Bottom line: Tracy Letts shows his soft side.
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