Community Kitchen – Chicago Leader

Cooking is familiar territory in theatre and film, a testing ground for family, friendship and self-discovery. waitress such as one in which he resolves personal struggles through an inventive pie recipe, or the other in the 1996 film in which the brothers run a struggling Italian restaurant on the Jersey Shore. long night As we decide how much authenticity we're willing to sacrifice for success, character is often revealed through our culinary triumphs and crises. And it makes sense: we all have to eat, so why shouldn't the way we cook be the foundation of the stories we share?

Hot Wing King
Through 7/21: Wednesday 3 and 7:30 p.m., Thursday-Friday 7:30 p.m., Saturday 3 and 7:30 p.m., Sunday 2 and 6 p.m.; Wednesday 7/3 7:30 p.m. only, Sunday 7/21 2 p.m. only, no performances Thursday 7/4. Open captioning Thursday 7/11, ASL interpretation Friday 7/19. Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Ct., Glencoe, 847-242-6000, writerstheatre.org, $35-$90.

Catri Hall Hot Wing Kingwhich has its sweet and spicy premiere at Writers Theatre under Lillian Ann Brown's sympathetic direction, joins a regular slate of stories that use cooking as a metaphor for struggle and growth. Set in Memphis, where most of Hall's work unfolds, Hot Wings (which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2021 after its 2020 Broadway run was canceled due to the coronavirus) tells the story of a group of black men trying to win a prestigious local wing competition. The food-based storyline provides a smoldering backdrop for the show, with a mixture of fear, guilt, resentment and enduring love, subtly and subtly couched beneath the rapid-fire dialogue at the beginning.

Cordell (Brion Arsell) is a master chef at Wings who has put together a team (the New Wing Order) to try and get back on top. His girlfriend Dwayne (Joss. N. Banks) runs a hotel in Memphis and supports Cordell. Cordell left his wife and two sons in St. Louis for Dwayne (who he hasn't told the two that he's gay). Their friends, barber Big Charles (Ge Rickie Harris) and walking (and dancing and tumbling) one-liner machine Isom (Joseph Anthony Byrd), also join the team to help out, although the former would rather watch his beloved Memphis Grizzlies on TV and the latter seems more interested in providing commentary and making hot tea than helping with mundane kitchen chores. As another character tells him, “Stirring the pot is what you're good at.” (Isom's only major “contribution” to the recipe is a somewhat predictable but fun twist on the story.)

Dwayne's seemingly sunny disposition hides a dark side. His troubled sister was strangled to death after Dwayne called the police to check on her welfare. Her teenage son Everett (Jabari Kalik) is trying to keep things calm. Everett's father, TJ (Kevin Trevon Patterson), a small-time con man and thief, has asked Dwayne to let his nephew live with them until he graduates from high school so he can get a scholarship to college.

Cordell isn't too keen on the idea—though the house (beautifully rendered here in a two-story design by Lauren M. Nichols) is spacious—in part because he believes Everett has stolen from them in the past. But as the two-act play unfolds, it becomes clear that Cordell, too, feels guilty about his financial dependence on his sons and Dwayne. Winning the wing competition is his way of regaining his composure (finding his wings, so to speak).

This is a lighter performance than other plays I have seen at the Hall. Summitimagining a meeting between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the maid at the Lorraine Motel the night before he was assassinated. Hoodoo Loveis set during the Great Depression and Jim Crow era. Hall reportedly turned from acting to writing because she couldn't find enough plays with extended conversations between black women. Here, she gives space, attention and love to a group of black men, gay and straight, who solve their problems by just hanging out together, cooking, playing basketball and singing Luther Vandross's “Never Too Much.”

There are also bits of sadness and guilt in the comedy, particularly between Dwayne and Cordell, who share a common past of failing to care for their families. But as Hall said in a 2020 interview: Harvard Magazine“I wanted this play to embrace representations of black life, not black trauma, so there's a lot of joy and love and jokes in this production.”

Brown's direction also features some great performances. Arsel delivers the right mix of gravitas and doubt as he tries to master his latest recipe (“spicy Cajun Alfredo with bourbon-infused bacon”) while figuring out how to stay true to his new life with his old family. Banks, in a small but heartbreaking moment, reveals the stress that Dwayne feels about being the guy everyone can depend on. Bird thrives as over-the-top comic relief, while Harris delivers some great comebacks to Big Charles from his favorite spot on the couch.

There's drama onstage, but no life-changing tragedy, and Brown's ensemble believably embodies men who have known each other for a long time and who accept each other's weaknesses, even if they can't resist the occasional sarcastic remark. Hot Wing King It's a reminder that you may not always get what you want in life, but with faith in the community you love and your talents, you might get farther than you ever dreamed possible.