Playwright: Sean Graney. At: the side project, 1439 W. Jarvis Ave. Tickets: 773-340-0140 or www.thesideproject.net; $20. Runs through: Feb. 10
We take sugar for granted nowadays, but in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the sweet substance was a much-prized luxury item that was primarily processed via inhumane and deadly slave labor in the Caribbean. Playwright Sean Graney highlights this fact in his world-premiere two-actor historical drama Sugarward, now playing at the side project.
Graney specifically focuses on Col. Daniel Parke (1669-1710), the ambitious governor of the British Leeward Islands who was appointed by Queen Anne herself to root out corruption and put a stop to illegal trade with the Dutch and the French.
At first, Graney plays things for comedy, with Parke (John Henry Roberts) sweating copiously in his European garb amid the tropical heat. Graney's other up-front comic device is to have one actor, Joel Ewing, subsequently play three different roles to interact with Roberts' Parke.
The first act is essentially a set up for Parke to find his way. First Parke encounters the servant Thomas Kirby, who is keen to inform him of the many abuses inflicted on the islands by the unscrupulous sugar barons. Then comes Christopher Codrington Jr., whose family was once powerful but is now under the thumb of the current top sugar baron, Edward Chester, who all but threatens to blackmail Parke so he will back off from any planned reforms.
The second act is set in 1710 (hint! hint!), showing exactly what has come about during Parke's disappointing stewardship as governor. Graney's Sugarward is filled with informative details and facts that would make any history teacher proud, and it hopefully prods audiences to think about our own disputed luxury commodities nowadays that drive people and even nations to commit atrocities.
But as a drama, Sugarward feels like a lot of historical setup for a cad's untimely ending whom we don't really care much about. Roberts is certainly haughty enough as Parke, but he isn't given much to play to show why his character ends up doing the underhanded things he does in the Caribbean.
Joel Ewing definitely gets the showier workout through his three roles and many costume changes, but he comes off as more comfortable playing the comedy of the situation compared the dramatic gravity that later overtakes the proceedings.
Working in the tiny space of the side project, director Geoff Button and his design team do what they can with the obviously apparent limited budget. Sometimes you wish that Kelsey Ettman's costumes were plusher, or that Maria de Fabo's set decorations and props design were not so cheap-looking.
Graney's Sugarward is definitely historically informative and certainly offers plenty to contemplate. It's just too bad that as a drama, there isn't much there when it comes to characterization.
