'Stick Fly'

The usual—and usually true—complaint that Broadway is largely oblivious to drama and diversity is not applicable this season. So far, we have three straight plays by women (two of them black) and one by an Asian-American, with major roles for black and Asian-American actresses. Now, the question is whether any of them will be successful.

I’ve already handed in copy about Chinglish for Dramatics, and I’ll write longer comments on some of the other plays, but I thought I’d note my particular satisfaction with Lydia Diamond’s Stick Fly, a group portrait of a black intellectual and his two sons who gather for a summer weekend in their large summer house in a ritzy area of Martha’s Vineyard. Both of the sons bring along girlfriends (one black, one white) and there is a young woman who is ostensibly there as help but whose relationship with the others changes as the weekend progresses.  

It’s not a perfect play. I agree with the critics who think its exposition could have been trimmed or made less blatant, and there is a series of family secrets that feel a little standard issue, but there isn’t a role on that stage that isn’t worth playing, and there is heartfelt writing from a variety of conflicting perspectives. Part of what landed for me was the concern the black men put into their claim for dignity while, at the same time, demonstrating blithely retro attitudes towards the very smart women who put up with them. As the play unfolds, the women don’t hesitate to articulate their annoyance, both with the men and, yes, each other.

Dule Hill, Mekhi Phifer, and Ruben Santiago-Hudson are the men and all do well, but the richest writing has been composed for the characters played by Tracie Thoms and Condola Rashad, both of whom have passionate speeches about the burdens that accompany being perceived as advantaged. Diamond also writes sympathetically for the character played by Rosie Benton, the white woman dealing with some not-so-hidden resentments about her presence.

Much of the audience with which I saw Stick Fly were evidently members of the black upper middle class being depicted on the stage, and they were vocal about how persuasive they found the play. One of the reasons to do theatre is to give the audience a reflection of themselves so as to see themselves more clearly. This certainly happens at Stick Fly, and, despite its occasional technical clumsiness, I recommend it with enthusiasm. It doesn't hurt that the play is often very funny.