Stick Fly
After an absence of several years, Joe Stern is back producing at his theatre the Matrix. He has decided to take the Matrix Theatre Company in a new and challenging direction. He hopes to do a season of three plays that will be multi-cultural in nature. He states ”I want one play to have color content (the current Stick Fly), then another would be non traditional casting and double cast with different races, ---then perhaps an indigenous casting piece.”
The first playoff this multicultural season is the magnificent Stick Fly by Lydia R. Diamond. This is a gripping story that is set in an upper class of Martha’s Vineyard where African Americans have had a presence since the 1600s. Two brothers of the rich LeVay family bring their respective girlfriends home, one White and the other Black, and the sparks fly and don’t let up until the final curtain. In the play Lydia R. Diamond, an important new voice in the theatre particularly the Black Theatre, explores intra-racial prejudice, inter-racial hatred and ambivalence, class, family, fidelity, and trust. The play reminded me some of another great New England playwright Eugene O’Neil because Stick Fly is a play which exposes the secrets and stories of a highly dysfunctional family. Strangely enough, the play also reminded me of the play The Last Night at Ballyhoo by Alfred Uhry which brings to light the tensions that exit between Jews in the South who come from different branches of the religion. Then, of course, the influence of August Wilson as the play deals with intergenerational issues and what it means to be Black.
The cast of Stick Fly couldn’t be better. The patriarch, Dr. Joseph LeVay, is beautifully played by John Wesley. You can never quite pin him down: is he a saint for having brought his family into the society of Martha’s Vineyard or a sinner who has wrought terrible pain on the family. The two brothers are Chris Butler and Terrell Tilford. Butler’s character is the put down younger brother who can’t seem to do well in his father’s eyes. Till ford’s brother is selfish. Self absorbed womanizer who defies his family by bringing home a White woman, the beautiful Avery Clyde. The younger brother’s girlfriend, the talented Michole Briana White, is from a poorer family and is filled with rage and political awareness as she tries to fit in. There is another character Cheryl Washington played by Tinashe Kajo who is the maid’s daughter, whose story is part of what brings about the unraveling and ultimate resolution to the gatherings conflicts. This is a great ensemble.
The set for the play is an amazing reproduction of a house in Martha’s Vineyard and is of Broadway quality. The designer is John Iacovelli whose set is complimented by the lighting of Christian Epps. Shirley Jo Finney who directed the play at the McCarter Theatre repeats her magic here. This is a powerful production and you should try to see it. Stick Fly plays at the Matrix Theatre through May 31.
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Theater: The Matrix Theatre
Web Site: http://www.matrixtheatre.com/
Tickets: 323 960 7740
Dates: EXTENDED Through June 28, 2009.