George C. Wolfe’s Spunk depicts the stories of the experiences of African Americans in the first half of the twentieth century after they have migrated from the South to Harlem. Alas, Water Tower Theater's current staging of the 1989 piece, which adapts three of Zora Neale Hurston's short stories, is an uneven and totally forgettable production. How bad is it? Let me count the ways.
The “set” consists of a long wooden runway embellished with various trap doors and wooden crates/cubes, in one instance re-arranged with a board across the top to form a table. When a couple gets into “bed” they simply lie down on the floor and cover up with a blanket. When two of the actors, referred to simply as The Folk, hide under two “trees,” they actually crouch beneath two small, leafy branches held by two of the other actors. Last but not least when one distaff Folk steps out of the shower (outlined behind a translucent scrim) and slips a robe over her “naked” body; she then steps out of “the shower” with the floral hem of her dress hanging about three inches below her robe.
While some may call this staging imaginative, I call it cheap. If I wanted to imagine a bed, a table, and a tree I could have stayed home and read the play and just imagined the characters and scenery. That being said, the star of this production is Liz Mikel as Blues Speak Woman. Ms. Mikel has no equal on any Dallas stage and should “get out of Dodge” as quickly as possible and head for Broadway or London's West End. Ms. Mikel both narrates and steps into the action of the play seamlessly without missing a beat. In a word, she is simply superb.
Tiffany Hobbs is excellent and expressive as the young washer woman in an abusive spousal relationship over which she reigns triumphant and, in a role reversal, the wife who betrays her devoted husband.
Each speaking cast member acts as both narrator and character weaving in and out of the play's stories. Of the three men in the cast with speaking roles, only Calvin Roberts is able to speak intelligibly. Joshua Bridgewater and Marcus Mauldin may as well be speaking gibberish as they mumble and swallow their words. My seating companion even turned to me during the play and asked: "What did they say?"
Kevin MacIntosh casts a mesmerizing spell as Guitar Man as he skillfully essays the soulful music accompanying the onstage action. Michael Robinson's costumes blend perfectly with the period and provide colorful eye candy, Jordana Abrenica's sound design adds immensely to the production, especially the sounds of the rattlesnake.
