Pitbulls. Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (see Off Broadway). By Keith Josef Adkins. Directed by Leah C. Gardiner. With ensemble cast. Running time: 2hrs. One intermission.
Pitbulls: In brief
A woman comes under suspicion after the death of a prize dog in Keith Josef Adkins's drama, set in a rural black Appalachian community. Leah C. Gardiner directs the premiere.
Pitbulls: Theater review by Christopher Kompanek
Keith Josef Adkins’s intermittently frustrating and fascinating Pitbulls peers into an insular African-American community in rural Appalachia, their brutal pastime of dogfighting and the militantly idealistic woman (aptly named Mary and played with dogmatic ferocity by Yvette Ganier) who wants to put an end to it. Mary’s murky past begins to snap into focus as her son, Dipper (Maurice Williams), teeters on the edge of manhood and feelings of rage swirl inside him.
At its best, Adkins’s dialogue has an arch specificity reminiscent of August Wilson, which comes across most vividly through the character of Virgil, a menacing sheriff with polluted good intentions, played with off-kilter brilliance by Billy Eugene Jones. Where the play falters is in the plot, which too often feels stagnant or contrived. The idea that pitbulls kill only because they’ve been trained that way raises a compelling question about nature versus nurture. If the message is woven heavy-handedly throughout the drama, that doesn’t tame its wider resonance.—Theater review by Christopher Kompanek
THE BOTTOM LINE A lot of bark and bite, but it needs extra training.