“incest, dead pets, maiming – and you know where it’s heading. Essentially the writing serves up hopelessness as entertainment. The characters are stereotypes, and there is no examination of the real issues that create and perpetuate poverty….but the committed cast and their director… get it over the line.“
Veronica Hannon
2.5 / Stars
KXT Theatre
Until April 8, 2023
Cherry Smoke was the work chosen to christen the new KXT space on Broadway. I can understand what might attract a young company to such material often described as ‘raw’ ‘visceral’ or ‘gritty’. To my mind, it is 100 minutes of ‘misery theatre’. And for a play not even 20 years old, it feels very old-fashioned.
Writer James McManus was born in Manhattan but grew up in a dying industrial town near Pittsburgh. It was typical that these once-thriving counties deteriorated over decades. They were the backdrop for bold promises made by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016. The anger felt in communities like these helped Trump get elected. McManus sets his play in such a place, and his quartet of characters are from an entirely neglected stratum of this society.
Fish (Tom Dawson) has been using his fists to solve problems since his father pushed him into making a living in the underground boxing scene at age nine. For his girl, Cherry (Meg Hyeronimus), who was homeless and living by the river when they met, there is no life without Fish. Fish’s brother, Duffy (Fraser Crane), patches him up after his bouts and lives a modest life with Bug (Alice Birbara), who is training to be a nurse’s aide and longs for a child.
In mostly one-on-one scenes, which occur in the past and present, we are offered a fevered telling of underclass deprivation. If you’ve seen enough of this kind of theatre, you can play poverty bingo – incest, dead pets, maiming – and you know where it’s heading. Essentially the writing serves up hopelessness as entertainment. The characters are stereotypes, and there is no examination of the real issues that create and perpetuate poverty.
It’s a bit on the nose, especially given the KXT’s proximity to the Franklyn Street housing estate, but the committed cast and their director, Charlie Vaux, get it over the line. The traverse staging allows all audience members to be close to the action, and each actor does their damnedest to honour their character’s distress. Their work is beautifully lit by Jasmin Borsovszky. I’m sure all involved intended to provide a clear wake-up call for an urban and comfortably off audience, but after decades of theatregoing, I’m declaring poverty ogling has had its day. I’m not saying that in the black box, actors, who are usually middle class, can’t create empathy and give us some understanding of what it’s like to be someone like Fish. It would just be nice if these stories took a more honest view.
Veronica Hannon, Theatre Now
Hi Ms. Hannon,
Thanks for taking the time to review my play, Cherry Smoke. Art is subjective and I appreciate all reviews, even the ones which dislike my script. I do, however, request a bit of “low bar” journalistic/intellectual rigor. I was not born in Manhattan, NYC. I was born in Donora Pennsylvania and lived there through high school. Donora is the town in which Cherry Smoke is set. And growing up in Donora, we did not consider our life events to be poverty bingo or poverty ogling, we simply knew it as poverty. I am thrilled that my characters who could see every place they had ever been by climbing a telephone pole have gotten to travel the world telling their story via the magic of theater. Have a great day!