Sunday, May 17, 2009
A+E, Theater, Reviews

Race baiting

Stock clichés keep race-car comedy in neutral

MJ Conboy
Bart Hansard, Chad Martin, Matthew Myers and Corey Bradberry

“TRADIN’ PAINT”
Theatre in the Square
770-422-8369
www.theatreinthesquare.com
Through June 7

BY BERT OSBORNE

Even when it eventually wants us to, it’s hard to take Catherine Bush’s "Tradin’ Paint" very seriously. The comedy’s hayseed heroine is a high-school dropout/auto-parts clerk/diehard NASCAR fan named Darla Frye, and it’s populated with a gaggle of other stereotypical Southern bumpkins—many of whom have cutesy names or speak in a hick-y vernacular.
 
There’s Lucky Tibbs, the wife and pit-crew chief of a driver named Skeeter Jett, what learns Darla how to change a flat tire and dump her odious dog-catcher of a boyfriend. Or Halley Smoot, the adult-education English teacher what learns Darla how to write an A+ paper and get her GED, while still talking like the self-professed "ignorant redneck hillbilly with trailer-park tendencies" what she are. If, after hearing her essay correlating Dale Earnhardt and Jesus, you somehow share his assertion that Darla has "the makings of a good writer," it won’t be much of a stretch to buy her alleged transformation into a liberated, free-thinking woman.
 
Almost inexplicably, Theatre in the Square’s "Tradin’ Paint" is more fun than it has a right to be. It’s directed with considerable spunk and affection by Jessica Phelps West, whose crackerjack pacing is key—in briskly simulating a few races (with actors sprinting across the stage holding steering wheels) and in smoothly shifting focus between the play’s alternating narrators. Some of the performances help, too. We ultimately tolerate dumb Darla because of the sweet, earnest quality Veronika Duerr brings to the role. Likewise, Kate Donadio and Chad Martin make such a great couple as Lucky and Skeeter, you wish the characters were half as smart as the actors. Bart Hansard steals scenes in an impressive variety of bit parts.
 
By contrast, Neal Ghant isn’t nearly so enterprising, blandly portraying that gay teacher and, in one painfully unfunny dream sequence, barely differentiating between the spirits of Earnhardt, God and Darla’s long-lost daddy. And pity poor Eric Mendenhall, who has the insurmountable task of making believable (never mind humorous) Darla’s repellent (if repentant) love interest. The play’s bogus finale suggests the two of them might live happily ever after, but it begs the question: Is Darla really moving forward with her life, or simply driving around in circles? SP
 

DULY NOTED:

 From a purely physical standpoint, at 15, Benjamin Appley-Epstein may be just right to play the coming-of-age protagonist in Neil Simon’s nostalgic "Brighton Beach Memoirs." But the young actor seems to lack the dramatic experience to fully realize the character. In one pivotal scene, he tells the audience, "This very moment marked the end of my childhood," but you’d never know it otherwise. It’s a rather dull performance, and without a suitably charismatic presence to carry the show, the rest of director Robert Egizio’s Center Theatre staging meanders accordingly. Through May 24. 678-812-4002. www.centertheatreatlanta.org.
 
From a purely structural standpoint, Pearl Cleage’s "Blues for an Alabama Sky"—set amid the 1930s Harlem Renaissance—feels forced at times, dealing with so many Big Issues: gay-bashing, birth control, abortion, gun violence. Stylistically, though, her characters and dialogue are beautifully drawn. Under the elegant direction of Andrea Frye, this True Colors production is nicely designed (set by Dunsi Dai, lights by Ken Yunker, costumes by Shilla Benning) and solidly performed (by Jasmine Guy, Eric Ware, Cynthia Barker, Benjamin Brown and Joel Ishman). Through May 31. 404-588-0234. www.truecolorstheatre.org.