‘Superior Donuts’ @ Theatre Arlington

Photos by Rick Wintersole and Jacob Oderberg

—Jan Farrington

Theater Arlington’s richly human and warm-hearted production of Superior Donuts pulled me in from the first moments. I lived in this very same big-city neighborhood as a young adult—so for me, that was part of the pull. But my guess is that even if “urban” isn’t your background, you’ll find people in this story you somehow already know—and will remember.

Set on Chicago’s quirky, ethnically diverse North Side, Donuts has the look (and the laughs) of a straight-up sitcom—a kind of Cheers with chocolate glazed and cinnamon twists. There’s a grumpy donut maker in the shop, a neighborhood cop or two, and a gaggle of local characters to watch (Russian immigrants, thuggy bookmakers, a bag lady named Lady).

But…because this is a play by the terrific Tracy Letts, you can be sure there’s more going on than just sitcom silliness. Born and raised in Oklahoma, Letts became a longtime member of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre in the mid-1980s—and as a playwright, he’s at home in both places. His 2007 play August: Osage County won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, and Superior Donuts (set just a few streets away from the theater) premiered at Steppenwolf a year before it opened on Broadway.

And always, in whatever place his plays find themselves, Letts writes about America.

This is a gentler play than most of his works, an open-hearted look at a small cluster of folks living in one of the many “villages” that make up the city of Chicago. At the center of the story is Arthur (Ivan Klousia), sole “proprietor” of the donut shop his immigrant Polish parents opened a half-century ago. (The family name is Przybyszewski—and the “P” is silent, if that helps.)

In Arthur’s circle are police officers Randy (Samantha Padilla) and James (J.R. Bradford), “beat” cops who walk the neighborhood, and Russian immigrant Max (David Fenley), who owns a nearby shop (and wants to buy Arthur out). Lady Boyle (Hannah Bell) is a longtime neighborhood resident; she isn’t actually a bag lady; she just dresses the part. Randy’s a hockey fan with a bunch of Irish brothers; we can see she’s interested in Arthur—but he doesn’t notice a thing. Randy is razzing Officer James about an upcoming Star Wars convention—that’s “fun time” for him and his wife. They arrive on a morning when the donut shop’s been vandalized; Arthur, so far a man of very few words, doesn’t seem surprised.

But at the end of the scene, playwright Letts drags this quiet, grouchy, somewhat boring man to the front of the stage—and Arthur opens up to us about everything: his parents’ postwar romance, his growing up years, the Uptown neighborhood’s ups and downs, his move to Toronto to avoid the Vietnam draft, his marriage, divorce, and daughter. He’s a book lover: college was cut short, but Arthur’s been reading and learning every day since. In his plaid flannel shirt (over a “message” tee) and jeans, he’s all my underemployed grad school friends rolled into one—smart as hell, and somehow missing the American Dream by a mile.

Dramatically speaking, we can’t bear to have things stay this way for Arthur.

So…enter vibrant and talkative Franco (Reginald Keith Dunlap II), looking for a job. A Black kid from the neighborhood, he’s enthusiastic, full of ideas, and doesn’t have a clue how to make donuts. But maybe he’s just what Arthur needs—and not just because Franco actually might be nice to the customers.

The rest of the story you’ll have to see for yourself. Playwright Letts pulls in this poem by African-American legend Langston Hughes to become of a kind of touchstone:

O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet
And yet must be….

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be.

The story comes to involve a first novel, a gambling debt, a pair of nasty mob-style debt collectors named Luthur (Tanner Mobley) and Kevin (Maximilian Swenson)—and a scary-tall Russian kid named Kiril (Tim Crabb). And as the opinionated Lady, Hannah Bell is gravelly-voiced, Chicago-authentic, and very very funny.

It’s a strong cast all around, directed with a sure feel for the material by Larry Cure and Sharon Kaye Miller, with Klousia (as Arthur) and Dunlap (as Franco) giving extraordinarily engaging performances as they grow closer, face big troubles, and (just maybe) wind up where we’ve hoped.

Bryan Stevenson’s diagonal set design is like an arrow pointing Arthur toward the audience for his between-scene talks—and gets all the details of an old Chicago storefront right, even the old radiator that needs a kick-start in the morning. (Well, maybe look for a rusty pressed tin ceiling next time?) Director Miller’s costumes do the job nicely, with Lady’s riot of layers and colors making us laugh the moment we see her. Eric Berg choreographed the Big Fight we see later in the show (go, Arthur!).

And that’s all I’m saying. Except that the last line of Langston Hughes’ poem is still—in happiness, in worry, in hope—running through my head, because I was lucky enough to see Superior Donuts.

America will be.

WHEN: July 21-August 6, 2023

WHERE: TA, 305 W. Main Street, Arlington TX

WEB: theatrearlington.org