Spunk

• Spunk
• Based on the writings of Zora Neale Hurston
• Adapted by George C. Wolfe
• Music by Chic Street Man
• Directed by Ken Yatta Rogers
• Produced by Tribute Productions in association with African Continuum Theatre Conpany
• Reviewed by Stanley Stocker

Spunk is framed by a single question posed at the beginning and again at the end of the play: “How do you git to the git?”  What’s the git?  It could be thought of as an Eden, or at least a place where peace or satisfaction or love can be found.

Spunk consists of three stories of characters in the suburbs of Eden trying to find a way inside its precincts – either for the first time, or after a painful expulsion.  The three short stories by the great Zora Neale Hurston are linked by language – what Hurston called “Southern colored classical” or in the case of the middle of the trilogy its northern cousin – and by two characters: Guitar Man (Michel Baytop) and Blues Speak Woman (Pam Ward) who open each story and often participate in the story telling.  Spunk is an imperfect theatrical work and this is an imperfect production that nonetheless offers genuine humor and pleasure.

In “Sweat,” the first of the tales, a marriage of fifteen years is in ruins as Delia (Jessica Frances Dukes), a meek, hard-working wife, contends with her husband, Sykes (Shane Taylor), who no longer loves her, perhaps never did, and may now want her dead.  If Delia, a woman deathly afraid of all slithering things, was long ago expelled from the Eden of the joys of married life, then this is confirmed when her husband brings a rattlesnake into the house.  When Delia reminds Sykes that her sweat, and not his, puts food on the table and a roof over their heads we begin to see the first indication that Delia may triumph over the devil in her midst.

In “Story in Harlem Slang,” the funny middle tale, Hurston presents Jelly (Donovan Hagins) and Sweet Back (Shane Taylor), two gigolos for whom seventh heaven is a hot meal, a pocket full of money, and a fine suit of clothes, all provided by a good looking woman.  But the men only aspire to this heaven and both await an angel to deliver them from the hell of their empty pockets and growling stomachs.  When a woman appears they believe deliverance is at hand only to find they’re left in “Ginny Gall” or a suburb of hell.

In the final and most satisfying of the three tales, “The Gilded Six-Bits,” Paradise is found and lost and found again.  This particular paradise is a “Negro house in a Negro Settlement that looked to the payroll of the G. and G. Fertilizer works for its support. ” but the real foundation of the house is the love between Joe (Shane Taylor) and his wife, Missy May (Jessica Frances Dukes).  The young couple takes pleasure in the rituals of genuine love: every Saturday afternoon Joe tossing silver coins in the door for Missy May to pile beside her dinner plate; Missy May rummaging through his pockets for the treats hidden in his clothes.

Enter the devil to this Eden in the form of Otis D. Slemmons (Donovan Hagins), a red-jacketed, gold-toothed rascal with his mind on his money and his money on his mind (as well as Missy May).   The couple must discover whether their union can survive the temptations of riches.

In adapting the stories for the stage, George C. Wolfe elected to have the actors perform the actions as well as serve as sometimes narrate their own and others’ actions.  This device has its strengths and weaknesses: in the comic scenes, it serves to enhance the comic playfulness, as when Jelly and Sweet Back engage in a duel of words; in other more dramatic scenes, the device distances the audience from the emotion behind the action as when Joe confronts Slemmons.  But all in all Wolfe’s adaptation results in more hits than misses.

The auditory pleasures of the production are many and can be found in the Hurston’s “Southern (and northern) colored classical” language as well as the music.  Baytop’s blues guitar provides a satisfying grounding for the play.  His guitar’s sound could have benefited from greater volume to match the power and grit of Ward’s rich vocals.  The beautiful song, “The Sun Came Up,” in the third act poses the question of whether the sun is rising or setting on the young couple’s love.  This song is the strongest and most satisfying of the three major songs of the play.  But the other two, one a gospel song and the other a blues song, were also very satisfying.

The ensemble’s acting is solid with Dukes and Taylor as standouts. However, the opening of the third story seems to have been played as a caricature of playful tenderness rather than playful tenderness itself.  The antic nature of those opening moments could have been taken down a notch or two to greater effect.  Andrew Honeycutt is a suave and appealing narrator of the scenes between Jelly and Sweet Back.  Hagins, Taylor, and Dukes play up the slapstick elements of Jelly, Sweet Back, and the Girl, but taking the antic level down a notch in the early part of the scene would allow comedy as opposed to caricature to predominate.  Also, while Mr. Hagins does a fine job as the serpentine Otis D. Slemmons, he seems miscast as the roguish would-be playboy Jelly.

The set design is spare and effective: a triangular stage framed above by a roof of wooden triangles calls to mind a simplified version of the open-air manger of Botticelli’s “The Adoration of the Magi.” The triangular shape of the stage makes it feels as if the action comes to the audience as from a horn of plenty. The symbolism is apt since there is a lot to enjoy in the production.

How do you git to the git, to the Eden of peace or satisfaction or love?  Hurston provides three examples of characters striving to answer that question in the midst of trouble, tribulation, and temptation, and it’s well-worth watching these characters trying to do so.

• Where: Atlas Performing Arts Center’s Sprenger Theatre, 1333 H St, NE, Washington, DC
• When: thru Dec. 23^rd. Wednesdays thru Saturdays at 8 pm; Sat & Sunday matinees at 2 pm
• Tickets: $20-$35
• Info: Consult the website.

Editor’s Note:  Guest reviewer Stanley Stocker is a lawyer in Washington, DC