Review of Mary Arrchie Theatre Co.'s Superior Donuts

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Superior Donuts. It was about a man that owned a donut shop, and he hired a new employee, and they became really good friends. The first act was really funny; the second act was mostly scary but not all the time. It was written by Tracy Letts who I know about because I was kind of in a play with him. If you guys saw me in Iron Stag King, the big dragon voice was Tracy Letts. I thought some of it was for grown ups more than kids, and some of it--like when the betters came in--I didn't understand at first. But that isn't the fault of the play. It is the fault of me being a kid. Superior Donuts was sad, intense, and hilarious.

I thought the friendship between Arthur (Richard Cotovsky) and Franco (Preston Tate, Jr.) was interesting. They both were irritated by each other but they loved each other very much at the same time. There was a fight at the end about how Arthur basically sacrificed his life for his friend. In some scenes they yelled at each other because they thought the other was racist. I don't think they were actually racist, Franco was just afraid that he wouldn't like his book if he was racist because it was written by a black person, which was him. Their relationship would not be as interesting if they just liked everything about each other.

One of my favorite moments was when Franco was testing Arthur to see if he was racist. He said, "name ten black poets." And then Arthur named three black poets and he pretended he was thinking of another and then he named 7 more black poets in like ten seconds. I thought it was really hilarious because it seemed like he was going to lose, and then he just named all of them very quickly.

There was this moment where Franco was telling Arthur how to impress the policewoman Randy ((Pat Musker). He said, "And you have to get rid of that ponytail. Ponytails are for girls. And ponies." It is absurd in a funny way--who would ever think of such a smart and hilarious thing! But there was another part where Arthur was giving Franco advice about how to publish his book called America Will Be. How they were giving each other advice about what they really wanted showed that they really cared about each other.

I think that Lady (Joanna Maclay) is basically one of the friends of everybody in the show because she comes to the donut shop a lot because she is a homeless person and she needs food. That is the reason they call her Lady--because she wasn't telling them her name because people might be looking for her because she's homeless. Arthur gives free donuts to Lady and that tells us he is a very nice person. She told a sad story that made me feel sad for her about how all of her children died except for one. It made Arthur remember that he should go and see his daughter and that Franco's father left. That means he knew that he made his daughter very sad and that Franco needs a father.

The fight was really disgusting but also it made me laugh a lot. It is between Luther (Karl Potthoff) who bet Franco on sports games and Arthur. Max (Paige Smith) from next door didn't really fight but he did make me laugh really hard by when he was looking into the kitchen and they were having a fight and you kept hearing this bang which happened to be a cookie sheet and I thought that was really funny. He kept looking back in these faces that were like "Something baaad is happening back there." There was something bad happening back there, but it wasn't the worst. The worst thing was when Luther came back from behind the counter and blood was coming out of his mouth. I just didn't want to see it. I was kind of sad for Luther even though he was the big bad guy. One of the funny parts in the scene was Kiril (Bryan Kelly) just walking in. Everybody in the audience

just started laughing because Max came in and said, "I am here to make sure that they stay off of Arthur," and Kevin (Christopher Borek) started for the door, and then he said "And this is Kiril" and he just walks in, this amazingly tall man, and Kevin walks back super slowly like "Ok, I'm not getting into this fight." And Luther is also standing there just staring at Kiril.

I loved how the policeman James (Bradford Stevens) loved Star Trek so much and he came in wearing a costume. And Arthur said, "where are your pointy ears?" I thought it was really funny. I thought it really showed the relationship between the two police officers when Randy said about James and his wife that it's nice that they do this stuff together because they're both total nerds.

Randy I think is actually in love with Arthur, but she doesn't want to tell him that she is. He is very nice and very smart but he is very short-tempered and she is very short-tempered, so I guess that makes them perfect for each other. She was one of my favorite characters in the whole play because she was very smart, very funny, and she was also one of the only girls in the play. Randy is important to the play because we wouldn't have some of the funniest jokes (because they are about her or she tells them). If we didn't have Randy and she did not have a crush on Arthur, then it wouldn't be Arthur and Franco helping each other. It would just be Arthur helping Franco with the book and that wouldn't be true friendship.

People that would like this show are people that like friendship, big fights, and donuts. People should see it because it is funny, moving, and scary. It will teach you that if you have a friend, and your friend is in trouble, even if you don't want to do the thing to save them, you'll just do it.


Photos: Greg Rothman