CurtainUp
The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features,
Annotated Listings
| |
CurtainUp The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features,
Annotated Listings |
|
A CurtainUp DC Review
Spunk
Spunk, now playing at Signature Theatre, is comprised of three of her short stories— "Sweat," "Story in Harlem Slang," and "The Gilded Six-Bits" — adapted and directed originally by George C. Wolfe and directed in this version by Timothy Douglas. The music of which there is far too little is by Chic Street Man. An evening of his compositions would be a treat but here they are used solely as entr'acte connective tissue and the occasional thrum of a guitar, by Jonathan Mosley-Perry, to emphasize a point. The cleverness of the script is that it does not make any concessions to contemporary feminism, metooism, in fact any 'isms. It tells it like it was in plain African-American vernacular of a particular time and place — the beginning to middle of the last century. Even though the show is in Signature Theatre's intimate Black Box some of the dialogue was lost on me. Maybe the problem is the unfamiliar language and the speed with which it is delivered. I did however get some of the priceless one-liners such as "even conversation collapsed under the heat," and the comment on a rather large woman looking like "she had six months in front and nine months behind." (You couldn't get away with that today.) The first story is of an unhappy married couple. She's afraid of snakes and he, being a bully, takes advantage of that. The second is set in Harlem where two men swaggering around town, comment on the ladies they see and keep. The third story,"Three Gilded Six-Bits," by far the best, tells of a married couple with issues that get resolved happily. Iyona Blake as Blues Speak Woman has a splendid voice and Ines Nassara as Folk Woman is pleasing as the taunted wife, the pretty girl, and the happy mother. Marty Austin Lamar as Folk Man Two, plays a larger than life pimp with humor and Drew Drake is very sweet in the parts that he plays, particularly as the father of Folk Woman's baby. Kenyatta Rogers, Folk Man One, at times overdoes his scenes which can be distracting. All-in-all, this is a very pleasant slice of African-American life, of a certain genre and era, that is not seen often enough. For a review of a Barrington Stage production back in 1999 go here. |
PRODUCTION NOTES Spunk Based on three tales by Zora Neale Hurston Adapted and originally directed by George C. Wolfe Music by Chic Street Man Cast: Iyona Blake (Blues Speak Woman); Jonathan Mosley-Perry (Guitar Man); KenYatta Rogers (Folk Man One); Marty Austin Lamar (Folk Man Two); Drew Drake (Folk Man Three); Ines Nassara (Folk Woman). Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes with one 15-minute intermission. Signature Theatre, SigTheatre.org; performances April 30 to June 23, 2019. Reviewed by Susan Davidson at May 9 performance. REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review. For a feed to reviews and features as they are posted at http://curtainupnewlinks.blogspot.com to your reader Curtainup at Facebook . . . Curtainup at Twitter |
