Superior Donuts

Superior Donuts, a follow-up of sort for Tracy Letts from his masterpiece August: Osage County, is first a foremost a direct attempt to not be a follow-up to the playwright’s prior work.  Letts has never been one to “build” on his work, which is not only admirable, but, frankly, exceptional.  His gift for dialogue & view into circumstance is equally exceptional.  This play, however, falls short of his talent.

Superior Donuts, the shop not the play, is a home of sorts for the play itself.  A single room set houses the rather dramatic break-in that sets the circumstances in motion in the confined space, and all of the elements of a dramatic score are present.  Michael McKean’s Arthur Przybyszewski is an aging (if not already aged) hippie, whose personal tale is a focal point of the play.  Its his store, and, to some extent, his story.  On stage for nearly the entire 135 minutes of the play, McKean does an admirable job conveying the balance of righteousness & hopelessness that is essential to the role.  However, the role is too simply written – telegraphing all of the impending plot developments & speeches for the audience, rather than allowing us to connect the dots and make our own assumptions.  I won’t spoil the deeper elements of Arthur’s paradox, but suffice it to say there are some serious issues he’s avoided over his life.  If only there was some depth to how those complications were expressed, this character could have been exceptional.

Jon Michael Hill sparkles in a somewhat stereotypical role of the neighborhood kid from the wrong side of the tracks trying (or appearing) to do good.  Of course, I pretty much called of the plot developments for his character arc, but Hill’s easy charisma helps his obvious talent overcome the rote-ness of his role.  The remaining actors deliver fine performances, with quotes and facial expressions lingering in my head.

I’m leaving out the plot details that I’m haranguing, so let me cover them quickly.  Arthur’s shop is vandalized, he has a crazy Russian immigrant neighbor, and one of the cops on the neighborhood beat is seriously sweet on him.  Hill’s Franco appears looking for a job, Arthur & Franco talk writers, Franco reveals his book, and then Franco’s barely guarded past is revealed.  Arthur intersperses the action with “internal monologue” memories, and the big conflict with Franco’s past turns into redemption for Arthur’s past struggles.  Like I said, rote, trite, and frankly unworthy of the dialogue & characterization Letts lays out for audience.

However wonderful Letts is at writing a scene (and he really is one of the best), his plotting could use some work.  I’m made mention of the standard plot elements here, but what made this play ultimately disappointing was that it was just so typical – when the expectation was for exceptional.  What made August: Osage County so brilliant wasn’t its plotting, it was the characterizations & dialogue.  Two years after seeing it, I’m still quoting it and relishing the outstanding performances.  This time around, I did my best not to compare the two works, but that’s nearly impossible.  Its not fair to the new work, which trying to avoid comparison admirably.  That being said, Superior Donuts just isn’t all that unique.  Which is a shame.  It won’t stop me from looking forward to new work from Tracy Letts, but it will temper my expectations.

Oh – and, they didn’t see donuts at the bar.  I think that was my biggest disappointment of the night.

Advertisement