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Stick Fly
By Lydia R. Diamond
Directed by Chuck Smith
Produced by Congo Square Theatre Company
At Duncan YMCA
1001 W. Roosevelt Road
Chicago, IL
Call 312-587-2293, tickets $25
Sunday, April 2 at 2 PM
Thursday, April 6 at 11 AM & 8 PM
Friday, April 7 at 8 PM
Saturday, April 8 at 2 & 8 PM
Sunday, April 9 at 2 PM
Thursday April 13 at 8 PM
Friday, April 14 at 8 PM
Saturday, April 15 at 2 & 8 PM
Running time is 2 hrs 25 min with intermission
Family drama crosses racial and class lines
Congo Square Theatre Company’s Stick Fly is another Lydia R. Diamond world premiere now gracing Chicago stages (the other is Voyeur de Venus at Chicago Dramatists). Not bad for a 30something playwright.
Stick Fly is Diamond’s “family parlor play” about a wealthy African-American clan with long roots in New England’s Martha’s Vineyard. Stick Fly is another smart Lydia Diamond play that features Taylor (Ann Joseph) a post-graduate entomologist who is an independent, passionate feminist filled with rage over the hypocrisy shown to educated Black woman. She is the daughter of a well know Black scholar who divorced her mother before she was born thus denying her a part of his family status.
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She meets and falls in love with “Spoon” (Daniel Bryant) the gentle and loving professional student son of a prominent Old Guard Black New England family. The LeVay family is old money, privileged and snobbishly proud. The patriarch, Joseph (Philip Edward Van Lear) is a brain surgeon, Flip (AaronTodd Douglas), the oldest son, is a womanizer plastic surgeon who had a one-night-stand with Taylor six years earlier. He is dating an “Italian” (white) woman (Ann Roch). Spoon wants to introduce Taylor to the family at their summer residence at Martha’ Vineyard, Massachusetts. The LeVay family has a rich history dating back to the 1600’s. They are “blue-bloods” in the Kennedy and Lodge family traditions. Few white folks (me included) knew of these families yet history is filled with their accomplishments. How American their story is and how little we know about them.
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The storyline is the stuff of parlor room melodrama with a twist—it is from a Black point of view. It shows that class, education and wealth doesn’t erase racial stereotypes. Even though the LeVay family is affluent, educated and cultured, they have the vanity, sexual appetites and issues that all families have. But add the class element to the racial one and we have a 21st Century drama.
Lydia Diamond fills the play with an emotional attack on the socially aware white liberals whose condescending attitude is the most vicious and damaging racism. Diamond deals with the subtle low expectations of women of color in American society in this enjoyable show that features two memorable Black woman—Taylor and Cheryl (Ericka Ratcliff) both self-made women. Diamond’s theme is that even if the environment has improved, the struggle for Black women continues.
The writing has some stinging comments and the storyline is plausible and the work from Ann Joseph and Phillip Edward Van Lear is first-rate. I’d cut some of act two and tighten the play somewhat, but this is worthy look at the sophisticated wealthy family that happens to be Black. That fact alone gives Stick Fly an underlying power. Lydia R. Diamond could take over where August Wilson left off. She is an amazing talent and terrific storyteller.
Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed April 1, 2006
Jeff Recommended
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