Playwright: Lydia R. Diamond
Congo Square Theatre Co. at Duncan YMCA, 1001 W. Roosevelt Rd.
Phone: ( 312 ) 587-2292; $10-$25
Through April 15
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
There comes a moment in the second act of Lydia R. Diamond's latest play when one of her characters offers an explanation as to why the heck it's called Stick Fly. Apparently, entomologists glue flies to sticks and videotape them in order to study their speedy movement. Then the fly is discarded while the slowed-down tape gets rigorously examined.
Exactly how this fly study symbolically relates to Diamond's drama of African-American familial and class resentment is puzzling. Sure, a young entomologist is doing the explaining, but her career choice and explanation feels forced. ( It's as if Diamond heard about this particular scientific technique and was determined to wring a dramatic metaphor out of it. )
Now in its world-premiere production through Congo Square Theatre Company, Stick Fly should be another feather in Diamond's cap. She's already established around Chicago for her stage adaptation of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye ( being revived at Steppenwolf Theatre Company next season ) and currently represented at Chicago Dramatists with the critically acclaimed Voyeurs de Venus.
Unfortunately, Diamond's Stick Fly taints her winning ointment. Diamond is smart and keen to point out the many hurdles ( both racial and self-imposed ) that wealthy African Americans still face in this country. Yet, Diamond's Martha's Vineyard vacationers serve more as functional mouthpieces to the issues instead of becoming living and breathing people caught up in Stick Fly's drama.
Stick Fly mainly follows the heroine entomologist as she meets her fiancee's old-moneyed family at their summer beach house. While there, she's challenged on her views and beliefs while family skeletons tumble out of not-so-hidden closets.
Stick Fly dwells on so many issues ( including interracial dating, subversive racism and gender sexism ) and subplots ( such as hidden flings, father resentment and class grudges ) in the meandering first act that your attention is stretched thin. By the time the major theme exploring the damaging effects of distant fathers on their neglected children comes to the fore, you're not as invested as you could be.
It's a pity the script seems to hamper the efforts of director Chuck Smith and his skilled crew of actors. Diamond does attempt to bestow some funny quirks on her characters ( like father Joseph's frowned-upon love for pickled pig's feet ) , but it's not enough for the acting company of Ann Joseph, Aaron Todd Douglas, Daniel Bryant, Phillip Edward Van Lear, Ericka Ratcliff and Ann Roch to fully bring Stick Fly's denizens to life.
Stick Fly shows that even if you're wealthy, upper class and members of the country's intelligentsia, it doesn't bring any guarantees of familial happiness. Diamond launches plenty of worthy insights throughout Stick Fly, but it ultimately remains grounded since so many are cursorily swatted all at once.