Review: CHICKEN AND BISCUITS at Springer Opera House
A comedy that feels right at home in Georgia
"Family is a loaded word." This line from Douglas Lyons's script for Chicken & Biscuits epitomizes the play. At the funeral for the patriarch of the Jenkins clan, the question of "family" loads every scene with meaning and humor. At the Springer Opera House, Chicken & Biscuits is a comedy about family that makes its audience think, even while they laugh.
In Chicken & Biscuits, the Jenkins family reunites for the funeral of Bernard, who was a beloved pastor, father, and grandfather. The various branches of the family have their tensions, though. Daughters Baneatta and Beverly clash about everything from career choices to parenting philosophies. In the next generation, Baneatta's son Kenny yearns for acceptance of his sexual identity and his partner Logan, while Beverly's daughter La'trice is a 15-year-old aspiring rapper who wants to be treated like an adult.
The trope of an extended family reuiniting has almost become a Broadway cliché, and it is easy to see why. If good storytelling is about conflict, then years-long arguments and disagreements among family members are fertile territory for playwrights. Lyons's script does not break any new territory, and after setting up the family members the resolutions to their disagreements are predictable. Where the script succeeds is in creating characters who are pleasant people to spend an evening with -- even when they are acting coldly or rudely. Moreover, the Lyons family feels real without being stereotypes; they could be almost any African American family in 21st century America. The Springer's audience will feel like they are watching their friends, neighbors, or even their own family members on the stage.
The actors can claim the bulk of the credit for making this show work. Chiara Richardson is a picture of success as Baneatta, the college professor and pastor's wife who believes it is her business to run the family after Bernard's passing. She is supported by her caring husband Reginald (played by Michael D. Ruff), who is Bernard's successor as pastor at St. Luke's church. Richardson and Ruff are the perfect local power couple. They support and love one another through the difficult time of a funeral: Reginald must be the emotonal rock for the grieving Baneatta, while she must support him as he steps into the role of a head pastor. It is a relationship that feels important to both characters and therefore feels important to the audience. Richardson and Ruff make it work through their affection and their sincerity in their performances.
Beverly (played by Brietta Goodman) is the opposite of her sister Baneatta: a single mother who works as a hairdresser in Atlanta. Beverly has a carefree outer shell, but Goodman gives the character depth by showing how Beverly has embraced herself to stand up to Baneatta's judgments about Beverly's life choices. Yes, she may have made decisions that make her an economically distressed, but Beverly has an unflagging acceptance in who she is, and it gives her the strength to show courage in her relationships. This choice makes Goodman a worthy foil to Richardson and creates a believable decades-long conflict.
As Kenny, Mustapha Slack is the most vulnerable character in the play, and his internal struggle between his identity and his upbringing is perfectly understandable. Slack shows that Kenny sincerely loves the people in his family, flaws and all. Kenny is there for his sister Simone (played by Aleigha Burt) and cousin La'trice (played by Jahyla Richardson), and Slack masterfully connects with these and other scene partners to bring emotion into all of his stage time.
The entire cast gives compelling performances and makes their characters endearing in their own way. Director Keith Patrick McCoy has guided them through the character work needed to make this intimate play succeed. McCoy finds the heart(ache) in each scene, and helps his actors show why these relationships matter to each character. My biggest qualm with McCoy's direction is that it neglected the audience sitting at the sides of the thrust stage. (If you attend, sit in the center section!) The action also took place downstage far too often, probably because scenic designer Walter Pigford created an awkwardly shaped upstage platform that made the rear section of the stage off-limits for most scenes.
I was extremely impressed by the work of Costume Designer Alex Allison. The characters are all dressed in black for a funeral, but Allison still made every character's clothing unique. The costumes in Chicken & Biscuits conveyed important information about age, social status, and personality. Baneatta was the picture of a refined professional woman with her conservative top and skirt, sensible flats, stylish jacket, and round church hat. I had zero difficulty accepting her as a professor and pastor's wife. The contrast with the freewheeling Beverly (in her low-cut top, miniskirt, and heels) was unmistakable and served as an easy shorthand for the sisters' clashing personalities. Logan and Kenny were dressed very fashionably in suit jackets and a patterned silk shirt (for Kenny) and black turtleneck (for Logan), a nice way to show the generation and identity gap between them and Reginald. As a pastor, he was dressed in a white shirt, tie, and suit that looked like it was bought in 2015 and worn every Sunday since.
While the script is not innovative, the Springer Opera House production of Chicken & Biscuits is profoundly relatable. On the surface, I have little in common with the characters, but I found myself noticing the same underlying issues in the Jenkins family that I have seen in my family and others. The similarities with my own problems made me ponder the story and the play's message more than most comedies do. I believe many other audience members will have a similar experience.
Plus, the show is a crowd pleaser. The dialogue is often clever, and the audience gets sucked into the world of the play. (Reginald's rousing preeching style got quite a few audience members to shout "Amen!" during his funeral sermon.) Without doubt, Chicken & Biscuits is a success at the Springer Opera House. The three-dimensional characters are delightful, and I'm grateful that the Springer brought this show to town. I hope everyone can see it before it departs this world.
Reader Reviews
Videos