Barrington Stage is batting a thousand this season with a second highly entertaining production "Spunk". Based on three stories by Zora Neale Hurston, adapted for the stage by George C. Wolfe, directed by Rob Ruggerio, and beautifully cast, "Spunk" delivers a wide range of human emotions and conditions along with some of the happiest "blues" music imaginable.

Hurston (1901-1960) was a celebrated writer during the Harlem Renaissance. She wrote with grace and style of the everyday lives of black people. In "How It Feels To Be Colored" she wrote: "But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow damned up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all." This acceptance and celebration of her own race and identity caused Hurston to fall from grace in the late 1940's and in to the '50's as the civil rights movement grew. Hurston was outspoken in her opposition to many popular civil rights causes, including desegregation, and died in penniless obscurity.

The three stories dramatized in "Spunk" certainly show Hurston as both a realist and an optimist. The first piece, ""Sweat" focuses on the life of an abused wife and how fate turns on her abused husband only at further cost to the woman's soul. The second, "Story in Harlem Slang" is great fun, but in the end the young zoot-suited protagonist realizes that the glamour of the big city does not compare to the simplicity of his rural roots and that glamour comes at a price.

These two stories make up the first half of "Spunk", along with some happy musical numbers rendered by Guitar Man (Keith Johnston) and Blues Speak Woman (Sheyvonne Wright). Chic Street Man, who is credited with the creation of the music for "Spunk", does not get a bio in the program, so I am hard put to know whether he is a he, a she, or a them; but in any event the music is pleasing and suitable without being memorable. I remember the performers but not the tumes.

The final story of the evening is "The Gilded Six-Bits" a story of a marriage nearly destroyed when the wife, Missie May, becomes seduced into believing money can buy her and her beloved husband Joe more happiness than they already have in their shared love.

Johnston and Wright, who act as narrators as well as occasional participants in the stories, are very talented folks. Wright sings and shakes her ample torso in a style reminiscent of Nell Carter. She is particularly amusing playing an elderly man sitting on the porch with his/her cronies watching small town life go by. Johnston uses his guitar to provide a wide range of sound effects for the action beyond the scored music.

The other four members of the ensemble cast (three man and a woman) work seamlessly together to create character and atmosphere. Lisa Renee Pitts gets to really strut her stuff as she plays the central female role in all three pieces. She is haunted and pitiful as abused wife Delia in "Sweat"; hilarious as the Girl who tells the two Harlem pimps where to go in "Story in Harlem Slang"; and heartrending as Missie May beguiled by gold money in the final piece "The Gilded Six-Bits".

Dyron Holmes is another stand out. He gets his moment in the sun as Jelly, the Harlem pimp in "Story in Harlem Slang", but he also catches the eye as another of those elderly men on the porch in "Sweat" and as a young boy in the final story. Holmes is excedingly versatile in his performance and limber of body.

Dathan B. Williams, as the abusive husband in "Sweat" and the other pimp Sweet Back in "Story in Harlem Slang"; and Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. as the wronged husband Joe in "The Gilded Six-Bits" round out the cast with style. They have less flashy turns, but they are by no means lacking in talent.

Ruggerio, assisted by Michael Schweikardt's scenic design; Laurie Churba and Karen Perry's costumes; and Jeff Croiter's lighting, has enfused this happy evening with a large dose of spunk. Schweikardt should truly be credited with scenic design, for while there is no set to speak of, he has carved the stage space in smooth geometric shapes by use of a proscenium box within the stage and backdrops which sit sometimes within and sometimes without. Croiter obliges with light which further defines and shapes the stage space, as well as assisting in the creation of atmosphere and emotion. The light colors and textures are completely different for each of the three stories, creating somber suffering in "Sweat"; bright-lights-big-city comic book colored glitz in "Story in Harlem Slang"; and moving from merriment to estrangement and back again in "The Gilded Six-Bits".

I really must make mention of the second piece of the evening. It is a perfect little jewel in the midst of the handsome gold setting of this show. Having seen the latest in computer animation last weekend at MoCA, I can honestly say that we are far from ready to replace real people, real talent and real artistry with computer graphics. "Story in Harlem" slang is staged as if it were a Warner Brothers cartoon in bright colors with constant fluid motion broken suddenly by squeals and angles. Holmes, Pitts and Williams might as well have been inked in to Schweikardt's vividly colored backdrop. Pitts got a big round of applause for her work in this piece, as well she should. Put on a pair of platform shoes and try that stilted hip wiggle of hers for yourself!

"Spunk" runs through August 8 at Barrington Stage Company. The show runs two hours with one intermission. Call the box office at 413-528-8888 for tickets and information.

copyright Gail M. Burns, 1999

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