Sump'n Like Wings

Lynn Riggs (1899-1954) wrote 30 plays, a few of which were produced on Broadway, along with screenplays and poetry. Nowadays he is known--when he is known at all--for having written Green Grow the Lilacs, which Rodgers and Hammerstein turned into Oklahoma!

A gay man and a Native American, Riggs had a strong sense of "otherness" and how it affected people's lives. He often wrote about Oklahoma, where he was born, in the early 1900s, and he was frank about the ways limited opportunity and frequent violence circumscribed the lives of many people, particularly women.

Joy Avigail Sudduth, Lukey Klein,
Julia Brothers, Mariah Lee
Photo: Maria Baranova 

In Sump'n Like Wings, currently being produced by the invaluable Mint Theatre, Riggs focuses on 16-year-old Willie, whose bitter mother is trying desperately to rein in her daughter's energy, desire, and anger. Willie's mother wants to protect Willie from the dangers of the world--i.e., men--but Willie is far from rein-in-able, and she breaks out of the role life has given her, at great cost.

This important theme is familiar from other Mint productions, including Becomes a Woman, by Betty Smith, and The King of Spain's Daughter, by Teresa Deevy. Unfortunately, Sump'n Like Wings is not at their level. It has one-dimensional characters, awkward dialogue, and weird plotting. On the other hand, it does do an excellent job of depicting the claustrophobia that results from women's legitimate fear of men. In the world of this play, fear of violence--particularly rape--runs women's lives. 

Riggs has little use for straight men. The one decent man in the play is a gentle bachelor who is described in the script as walking "about with quick nervous steps--like a bird," i.e., gay.

This production is not up to The Mint's usual standards. The acting is hampered by the dialect and accents used in the play, e.g.:

OSMENT: Well, she done it! I'm as shore of it as I'm shore of goin to heaven when I die—

CLOVIS: Well, I doan know about you and heaven—

MRS. CLOVIS: Pass me sump'n, fer heaven's sake!

And while, granted, the actors don't have a lot to work with, they rarely rise above the material. 

The overall result is an opportunity to catch a museum piece, but that's about all. I wish the Mint had done Green Grow the Lilacs instead, but perhaps they someday will.

Wendy Caster