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Stick Fly begins with a spunky teenager named Cheryl (Shannon Dorsey) rocking out to Single Ladies as she tidies the living room. Even if Beyoncé isn’t at the top of your iPod playlist, this play starts out by putting a smile on your face.
Written by Lydia R. Diamond and directed by Everyman Artistic Director Vincent Lancisi, Stick Fly had its Baltimore premier at Everyman Theatre on March 18. Set in a Martha’s Vineyard cottage, this play tells the story of the homecoming of Kent (Kevin McAllister) and his fiancé Taylor (Erika Rose). There’s Kent’s brother Flip (Kevin Jiggetts) and his girlfriend Kimber (Kaytie Morris), the domineering patriarch Joe LeVay (David Emerson Toney), and the maid/family friend Cheryl. Diamond puts a twist on the convention of the missing father, and instead the absence of the family matriarch sets the tone for the rest of the play.
The play centers around the LeVay family. Generations ago, they were the first black family to move to the Vineyard, and have since become increasingly affluent. In this context, Diamond weaves a web of internal family conflicts.
For example, Kent wants his domineering father to support the work he does as a writer. His fiancée Taylor wants to fit in with the family, but has to come to terms with her own complicated relationship with her father. Flip wants to hide his history with Taylor, while dealing with the flack he receives for bringing home a white girlfriend (who isn’t white, she’s Italian!)
As the only white character in the play, Lilly Pulitzer-wearing Kimber serves as a catalyst for many heated discussions about socioeconomics. All the while, patriarch Dr. LeVay tries to maintain control of his household and hide his own dubious past. The maid Cheryl finds herself increasingly marginalized in the LeVay household as she learns the truth behind her ambiguous position in the family.
Besides this family conflict, Diamond challenges racial and class stereotypes. Dr. LeVay is proud that his family was the first African American family to have a house on Martha’s Vineyard, yet he struggles with the fact that it is his wife’s name, not his, that adorns the property.
When Kent and Taylor first arrive, she jokes that she was marrying Kent for love, but after seeing his family’s home, she should be marrying him for money. Taylor breaks down when she recalls that her father, a famous historian, also had a house in Martha’s Vineyard, but was too embarrassed to let her visit during the summer.
As an etymologist, Cheryl describes using honey to attach a fly to a Popsicle stick, and then projecting its shadow onto the wall in order to observe its wing movements. Taylor’s profession serves as a metaphor for the play. On the one hand, Taylor is the fly, trapped in an environment in which she does not belong. On the other hand, she observes the LeVay family much in the same way an etymologist researches insects.
Scenic Designer James Fouchard focused on the detail in his representation of a Martha’s Vineyard cottage. Naturalistic sets are not always the most interesting, but this set worked well with the etymologist metaphor that Diamond weaves throughout the play. The rooms are filled with expensive furniture and art, which paints a clear picture of the privileged environment in which the characters live as well. This realistic setting gives audience members a sense of observing the characters in their natural habits.
Paradoxically, Cheryl is the fly that is most at home and out of place in the LeVay household. Dorsey is particularly convincing as Cheryl, and brings a refreshing, youthful energy to her fellow cast members.
Lancisi should be commended for tackling universal themes, like family, race, and gender, while making sure we are invested in the characters as well. Part of what makes this play great is that it is easy to empathize with characters like Taylor and Cheryl. Everyone has been an outsider at some point in their life, and in that sense, we understand their struggles to fit in.
Life is complicated. Relationships with family members are complicated. And so Diamond deliberately leaves strings untied at the end of Stick Fly. In this way, she challenges us to reflect on the story and continue the discourse in our own lives.
Stick Fly
by Lydia R. Diamond
directed by Vincent Lancisi
March 16 2011—April 17 2011
Tags: Everyman Theatre, Lydia Diamond, Stick Fly, Vincent Lancisi
Filed Under: Annoucements Community Feature
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