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Regional Reviews: St. Louis Coconut Cake Also see Richard's reviews of Long Day's Journey Into Night and Clyde's
A highly qualified team of actors plays five older (mostly Black) men who regularly meet for breakfast at a chain restaurant on Chicago's South Side. They rattle around in what seems like a plotless plot, like Chekhov's Three Sisters. But the strength of each character holds it all together, until great secrets are revealed near the final fade-out. And, perhaps because we don't really know why we're there at all for the first 90 minutes, the whole nature of it reminds me of that broken snow globe at the beginning of "Citizen Kane." The play seems shattered and incomprehensible, until the truth can be unearthed. And that's a sort of a "Rosebud," in itself, if you know the great Orson Welles movie–a tragedy of youth, revealed here in the searing final moments of Coconut Cake. Meanwhile, a chessboard on stage suggests another kind of structure for this two-hour play (with a 15 minute intermission), as a great cast moves us around on the board of an unconventional story. The introduction of the splendid cast, one by one, lends a subtle, rising structure to the first act, with nearly every man a bit madder than the one before. We meet the low-key Hank, a white retiree (Joe Hanrahan), and then Eddie (Duane Foster), one of the four Black characters, who's suddenly in need of a divorce lawyer. The rising arc of comedy is seemingly broken by the entrance of Marty (Richard Waits), a peaceful deacon for most of the others in church. But then the final two actors come on, greatly amping up the laughs. Richard Harris is excellent as the flashy slumlord Joe, and Lawrence Evans is towering as Gotdamnit, a hapless homeless man. Mr. Harris is great as the self-important real estate investor. And Mr. Evans is outstanding as a little man driven mad by life in the streets. Mr. Evans' greatest moment of tragedy comes when an off-stage character accuses him of cheating at chess (most of the characters here are unseen). Elsewhere, the swaggering Joe's sudden misfortune in act two is so real, in Mr. Harris's performance, that we can't seem to get a single drop of schadenfreude out of it at all. And why do I find that strangely satisfying? Am I finally sick of retribution? The perfect McDonald's-type set is by Tammy Honesty, with excellent costumes by Brandin Vaughn. The story rises above personal rumination when talk turns to the lack of bank loans and the ubiquity of liquor stores in Black neighborhoods. Then, like a lot of Black theater–and like a lot of good detective stories–a family secret puts everything into cruel focus. But, happily for us, even that grim revelation is swept aside by a final, heartwarming plot twist. Coconut Cake, produced by The St. Louis Back Repertory, runs through March 2, 2025, at the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre, 6465 Forsyth Blvd., St. Louis MO. For tickets and information, please visit www.theblackrep.org. Cast: Production Staff: * Denotes Member, Actors' Equity Association |
