Perhaps the most arresting thing about Stick-Fly is its title. It refers to a stick or the like with sticky stuff on it that entomologists use to catch flying insects so they may be studied. A main character in the play is such a scientist, but neither she nor others deals with insects in it.
Dramatist Lydia Diamond “sticks” attention on members—and possibly future ones—of a well-to-do black family during a crucial weekend at a long-owned beach home in upscale Martha’s Vineyard.
It’s hard to identify primarily whose play this is—i.e., the protagonist(s) or at least who has the leading action or will change the most, with the major definite result. I tend to opt for Cheryl, who grew up in this house “kept” by her mother, is smart and destined for college paid for by the house co-owner, but wants to find her true place in it and the family and how to relate to both in the future. Of course, I may be influenced by the strong performance by Trezure Coles from a mysterious start to a glorious end.
The showiest action falls to Rebecca Rose Mims as Taylor, a sexy fiancé of the family’s younger son. She’s an entomologist with a grudge against whites for racism against her throughout her school and university days. Mims makes Taylor’s continual upset and striking back, however, even more attributable to her being considered lower class socially as well as economically. So Taylor may be forgiven, even when she starts squabbles and a few fights. In the end, she seems to want to have changes for the good established and acknowledged.
Dad, a retired neurosurgeon (played simplistically by a too-youthful-looking Rueben Wakefield), likes how he lives and thinks he’s treated his sons well.
He favors the elder Flip, a plastic surgeon. Handsome Ibukun Omotowa captures Flip’s self-assurance, even when he’s briefly under attack. Flip’s brought along his pretty love, the white Kimber. She’s a social worker in a big city school system and, as Danielle Vivcharenko makes clear, not just a socialite playing savior to young black students.
Dad’s younger son, Kent, seems to be settling into a career as a writer after years of unsatisfactory educational attempts to try various professions. Rickey Watson, Jr. gives Kent a really cute attractiveness, enthusiasm about a book he’s just created, and a sexy yen for Taylor. She certainly goes for that, so much so that an intimacy director was definitely needed for the FSU Conservatory production.
It’s no surprise that Taylor and Kimber become immediately at odds. How that works out and how the men figure in it all are not as predictable and help keep (or revive, as in my case) audience interest in the plot outcomes. One question I had that I would have liked to see resolved is: what happened to the wife of Dad? She seems to be the wealthiest of all, since she inherited the beach house (along with other houses). There’s a phoned hint she might have come to it, and so she’d have had a reaction to the revelation about Cheryl made by Dad toward the end of the play’s progression. (Dad is not seen leaving the house as are his sons and their women.)
There’s a simple set of small living room and kitchen (just to the back of the LR sofa) without too much hint of date. A side stage holds an outside porch and, on opposite side, is the house entrance-exit and area where a few deliveries are made. Everything is adequate but vocal sound is sometimes not as good, coming from the far upstage kitchen. With all the eating and drinking that goes on, it would be nice if the program credited responsibility for props.
Director Marcus Denard Johnson, a Conservatory alumnus, shows his knowledge of the stage and technical facilities. Even more to his credit, he has let his actors show their personal strengths in their characterizations. He also blocked quite well the split stages and sometimes difficultly split activities on them.
