Subject: PUPT: Quicktake on "Spinning in Butter"
Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2002 16:33:32 -0400


"Spinning in Butter", now playing at the Theatre Coop in Somerville is not a 
bad script, but the number of missed opportunities is astounding.  
Characters are mentioned who never make it to the stage, facts about the 
situation are hoarded until the end, and everyone at this imaginary college 
seems to work in the same building.
It's hard to imagine a play about racism with no black characters onstage.  
Still Leslie Chapman and her stalwart cast of experienced local actors 
soldier through the piece with a certain panache. Lida McGirr and Fred 
Robbins are spot on as typical old guard administrators.  Korinne Hertz is 
believable as an earnest young Dean, and Anthony Dangerfield underplays the 
campus security chief, her only confidant, to perfection. The play's ideas 
are well-presented, even if the playwright's structure and personal 
interests seem to work against the possibility that those people we do see 
will learn something from the action.  This script has gotten a number of 
productions because it attempts to discuss racism from a white liberal 
viewpoint, but there's a real need for someone to write a better one.



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