"The Spitfire Grill" Shines at Cross Community Players

After serving her time in prison, Percy Talbot dreams of starting over in a new place – specifically, in a small town she found in a travel book. But when she gets there, she finds a town hit by hard times, where people don’t often open up and don’t easily trust an outsider with a troubled past. The Spitfire Grill is a show about people who have lost hope in their communities, their families, and their own lives. Percy’s belief in what the town has to offer starts to turn things around, but is it too late for the other characters to change their ways?

Cross Community Players picked an interesting space for their production of The Spitfire Grill; the room they used at St. Joseph Catholic Community was not designed as a theater and was not even totally enclosed, but it worked surprisingly well for staging this show. As a bonus, coinciding with the run of the show, the church had on display an exhibit featuring poetry by incarcerated people. A church member told me that they had been interested in bringing in this traveling exhibit for their congregation, and when The Spitfire Grill was planned in their space, they worked to get the exhibit in at the same time. This is an amazing example of what kind of collaboration there can be between theater groups and the communities they interact with – it was incredibly impactful to connect with a fictional character coming out of prison and then at intermission to go read the words of real people in the carceral system.

Director Vanessa Powers (with assistant director Kate Callen) let the story shine through in this production, letting the emotional moments stand on their own power and keeping blocking and choreography largely uncomplicated. Powers had a light touch with the humor, giving the occasional jokes a natural feel and a sense of novelty. Another great detail in this production was the program, which was styled like a diner menu. The design concept was clever, and the design work was also done beautifully, with all of the information laid out cleanly on a single page. Usually program design is only notable for its shortcomings, so it’s very satisfying to see a program that gives all the necessary info so efficiently and in such a visually appealing way! Isaac Cuellar music directed and led the orchestra on the piano. The vocal performances were strong across the board, and the orchestra had a great sound throughout the show. The guitar was an important instrument for this style of music, and I enjoyed the songs that featured it, but I was also struck by the combination of accordion and violin that I heard in one of the earlier songs. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a duet of those particular instruments before, but it was a novel and intriguing sound. Set designer James Erickson created shape in this unconventional theater space with smart use of black curtains to define the stage and orchestra spaces. His set design put all of the locations on stage at once; the lack of scene changes added to the sense of quiet and stillness from this small town. This space had limited capabilities for lighting, but Dan Backen’s design took full advantage of the space and every scene was lit well. I liked Backen’s subtle use of color to emphasize the tone and emotion in scenes like “This Wide Woods.” I was impressed by the sound system and its balance (run by Devin Backen) – I never had a problem hearing anything, even the quieter moments. Laura LaBree’s costumes were naturalistic and blended well, with subtle changes reflecting the changes in character’s attitudes.

Julie Erickson brought a lovely vocal character to Percy; Erickson had a clear vocal tone and put just the right amount of country affect into her songs. From the start, she gave a strong emotional performance that culminated very nicely in “Shine.” Lisa Denninger’s Hannah was demanding and anti-social, motivated by physical and emotional pains. Denninger’s performance showed the complexity of Hannah’s experience, gradually opening up and even having fun over the course of the play, while still holding on to deep emotional barriers. Monica Shukle played Shelby, a woman overly controlled by her husband who gradually finds her voice. Shukle has a nice bright soprano sound and kept Shelby’s transformation feeling realistic. “The Colors of Paradise,” a duet between Erickson and Shukle, was a particularly lovely song. The heart of this play is in Percy, Hannah, and Shelby connecting; together, they are able to find new possibility in their lives and find joy after a long time without it. These three actresses did a beautiful job at bringing that out, forging a genuine emotional connection with each other and with the audience.

As controlling husband Caleb, Adam Hebeisen gave an emotional performance in “Digging Stone”; he is a strong singer and brought a nice touch of roughness to the bluesy vocals of that song. Zach Fimon was pragmatic and sincere as the empathetic Sheriff Joe. Fimon was sweet in “This Wide Woods” and he and Erickson sounded very good together. As gossip Effy Crayneck, Meghann Rezabek brought a playful antagonism to all of her scenes. The ensemble was most impressive in “Ice and Snow,” where they provided percussive accompaniment with household items to show the changing of the seasons. Overall, the ensemble provided a great emotional backdrop to the story; it’s not just the trio of women but the whole town that transforms throughout the show.

The Spitfire Grill is a sweet show with a powerful message about friendship, forgiveness, and hope. Cross Community Players really let that message shine through in a production that was heartfelt, emotional, and uncluttered, and a real joy to watch.