Superior Donuts

At Jericho Arts Centre until August 16, 2019
Tickets from $25 at ensembletheatrecompany.ca

Posted July 26, 2019

Superior Donuts. Superior production. A little of The Odd Couple plus a smidgeon of Kim’s Convenience and what you get is American actor/writer Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts. Not nearly as dark as Letts’ Bug or August: Osage County, Superior Donuts nevertheless deals with disillusion, addiction and race relations but with a lot of humour.

In the play, Arthur Przybyszewski (David Nykl) took over his Polish immigrant father’s Uptown Chicago doughnut shop when the old man died. An idealistic Vietnam war-resister in the 60s, Arthur is now middle-aged, divorced and is slowly allowing Superior Donuts to die: sometimes there’s no coffee or doughnuts and the remaining few customers – police officers Randy Osteen (Alexis Kellum-Creer) and James Hailey (Anthony Santiago), homeless alcoholic Lady Boyle (Lindsay Nelson) and Russian immigrant Max Tarasov (Steve James).

The play opens after vandals have, once again, trashed the place and spray painted ‘PUSSY’ on the wall. Chicago’s finest arrive but there’s little they can do.

Bursting onto the scene is African-American Franco Wicks (Chris Francisque) in response to a Help Wanted ad. Super-persuasive, Franco really, really, really  wants the job and he has a couple of good reasons not the least of which is that he has been a gambling addict and owes some very bad guys some very serious money.

A relationship grows between Franco and Arthur despite Franco’s big plans to smarten the place up, start serving some decent, fat-free food, offer yoga classes, play music and maybe have a ‘Poetry Night’. Franco, it turns out, has written a novel and Arthur is no slouch when it comes to literature, either. When challenged by Franco, he reels off the names of ten African-American poets.

A parallel plotline involves Randy, the cop, who is romantically interested in Arthur who is too lacking in self-confidence to see it or act on it.

Letts’ dialogue is very funny with much of the humour coming from Russian immigrant Max’s fractured English; describing some thugs he says, “They have red neck”. “The air is snap”, describes the weather. And when thugs set upon Arthur, Max warns them, “I have friends, too. And they are Russians. And they don’t give a fuck.”

The story is fairly predictable: we know the guy is going to get the girl and that one way or the other, both Arthur and Franco are going to thrive. We may not know how that’s going to happen but we’re pretty sure it is going to happen.

And so the best part of this production, directed by Keltie Forsyth for the Ensemble Theatre Company, is in performance – and it’s as superior as Arthur’s doughnuts. Nykl’s Arthur is awkwardly charming: shuffling around in worn sneakers, saggy jeans and old t-shirt, he signals Arthur’s despondency but gives glimmers of the character’s intelligence. Arthur’s a reader and it shows. And he takes pride in his doughnuts – when he gets around to making them.

Chris Francisque is a powerhouse on stage. He doesn’t make an entrance: he explodes onto the stage. And he’s got great comedic flair yet a real way of showing that what you see in Franco is only part of his story. There are depths here.

Alexis Kellum-Creer and Anthony Santiago make a good pair of cops: smart cop, stupid cop and, in a really small but important role, Lindsay Nelson delivers some fine truths from the mouth of Lady Boyle.

The sinister guys are played by shaved-headed Richard Meen and sweet-faced Kenneth Tynan. Choreographed by Richard Meen, there is a lengthy fight that is both funny and the best staged fight I’ve ever seen. No knives. No guns. No guts. No blood.

The story ends the way we want it to but it’s been great getting there. Fantastic performances. Good story. Sweet. And, as Franco says, “No horse fat”.

Superior Donuts runs in repertory with The Drawer Boy and Born Yesterday as part of Ensemble Theatre Company’s 7^th Annual Repertory Festival, running to August 16.