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Tradin' Paint

Media Reviews

Creative Loafing:
Tradin' Paint puts female empowerment in driver's seat
06/24/2009
Theatre in the Square’s comedy Tradin’ Paint, like the theatrical chestnut Educating Rita, depicts a working-class woman who finds empowerment and confidence through learning. While Rita takes place in a university professor’s office in Liverpool, Paint’s action primarily occurs amid the stock car races of Tennessee's Bristol Motor Speedway.

Written by Catherine Bush, Paint sets a contrast between two women: one who’s in a pit crew, and one who’s just in the pits. Lucky Tibbs (Kate Donadio) runs her racing husband Skeeter Jett's (Chad Martin) pit crew and serves as a completely capable, small-town feminist icon. Meanwhile, Darla Frye (Veronika Duerr) works as an auto parts clerk and suffers from the neglect of her bitter boyfriend, Coty (Eric Mendenhall). Coty shows less appreciation for Darla than for her fried chicken, the bones of which he throws at the track in a speedway tradition. He’s an ignorant boor, who can’t stand KFC, calling Colonel Sanders a “faggot” for wearing a string tie.

When a flat tire strands Darla on a lonesome road, Lucky comes to the rescue and teaches her to fix it, setting Darla on the road to self-esteem. Tradin’ Paint finds humor in the jargon of pop therapy, like the way Darla drawls the refrain, “I’m fraught with deep-seated insecurities.” The play doesn’t so much satirize self-improvement clichés as affirm them in fairly straightforward fashion. The title, for instance, refers to drivers who aggressively jostle each other’s cars, but becomes a metaphor for engaging with life. Fortunately, Duerr proves utterly charming at playing Darla’s early depression as well as her metamorphosis, changing her posture, body language and eagerness of delivery as the show goes along.

Tradin’ Paint’s lineup also includes a gay African-American continuing ed professor (Neal Ghant) who’s an unlikely stock car fan, as well as a racing flagman (Bart Hansard, in multiple roles). The flagman helpfully explains some of NASCAR's niceties, including the difference between stock and indy cars. The cheerful cast brings out the comedy in the trailer-park roles without condescending to them, while director Jessica Phelps West and the designers clearly enjoy riffing on NASCAR themes. Granted, some of the running jokes start losing their tread by the second act, and Bush’s script seems a bit too amused with its comparisons between God and Dale Earnhardt. Fortunately, Theatre in the Square’s production has Duerr as its co-pilot.

Atlanta Intown.com Review:

06/24/2009
If, like me, you have no interest in Nascar or car racing and you think a play with a title like Tradin' Paint could not possibly interest you, stop right there: You're making a big mistake. Theatre in the Square has pulled off the theatrical coup of the season with Catherine Bush's charming, joyful, moving comedy about “racing and romance, dreams and destiny,” running through June 7. Actually it's about self-actualization and human beings realizing their own self-worth; but since that sounds a bit stuffy, I'll just stick with the “dreams and destiny” PR line. It's more entertaining; and ladies and gentlemen, Tradin' Paint (winner of the Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights) is here to entertain.

Darla Frye (Veronika Duerr) is an auto parts clerk “fraught with low self-esteem,” as she frequently reminds us. Coty Webb (Eric Mendenhall), her boyfriend, appears to value her mainly for her excellent fried chicken, which he loves to consume at the Bristol Motor Speedway—the chief diversion/entertainment in both their lives. Enter Halley Smoot (Neal Ghant), a local gay college professor who has returned home to Bristol from the big city and offers Darla some surprising encouragement when she enrolls in a writing class. Darla also receives aid and comfort from Lucky Tibbs (Kate Donadio), a beautiful and confident mechanic and crew pit chief with a tough veneer and wise, kind heart. She (Darla) even gets help from the beyond: the spirit of Dale Earnhardt pays her a visit and helps her deal with abandonment issues (can't tell too much here—you gotta see the play!).

The cast in Tradin' Paint is exemplary. In addition to the above, there is Bart Hansard (playing multiple roles, superbly); Chad Martin as driver Skeeter Jett; Corey Bradberry as Pierce Gabarino; and Matthew Myers as Tucker Forbush. There are no weak links; all are bursting with infectious energy, and the play fairly leaps off the stage. I am forthwith calling this play the “Nascar Hamlet,” because there are truly surprising layers here. (O. K., that may be a bit much, but so be it.) Ms. Duerr's Darla will both entertain (mightily) and enlighten you, as her character's epiphanies unfold. And just when you're ready to label Mr. Mendenhall's Coty a self-centered skunk, you realize labeling anyone is often nothing but an exercise in self-deception.

Director Jessica Phelps West has guided this metaphysical racecar comedy with a sure hand. There is outstanding work from scenic designer Nick Collins and sound designer Brian Patterson; also costume designer Alan Yeong and lighting designer Mary Parker.

How good is Tradin' Paint? My companion for opening night, a discriminating theatregoer, decided while driving back to Atlanta that he was organizing a theatre party and seeing the show again. He's no fool. Intowners: Start your engines and get on that race track called I-75 and see Theatre in the Square's new hit, running through June 7. First order your tickets.

Atlanta Theatre Buzz:
Poor Pitiful Me!

Grade A+
05/18/2009
Pity poor Darla Frye! Saddled with deep-seated emotional insecurities, her life is about to hit some bumps in the road.

Pity poor Coty Webb! Colonel Sanders is tryin' to poison him, his girlfriend is tryin' to get smarter, and NASCAR hero Skeeter Jett has put a ... I can barely even say it, the idea is so WRONG ... put a WOMAN in his pit as crew chief.

Pity poor Halley Smoot! He's got stock car racing in his blood, his heart, and his soul. But, he's a black, gay, English professor, and is about as welcome at an Appalachian race track as, well, as welcome as a black, gay, English professor.

Probably the only ones you don't have to pity are local boy-makes-NASCAR-good Skeeter Jett and his crackerjack mechanic wife Lucky Tibbs, who are happy, healthy, and doing what they love to do. Well, there is that temper thing, and that my-daddy-likes-my-wife-better-then-me thing, and that why-does-she-always-get-emotional thing, but what does all that matter when you've get a steering wheel in your hands and a bajillion horses under your butt?

Oh, and you definitely don't have to pity anyone racin' up to Marietta's Theatre in the Square for Catherine Bush's Tradin' Paint, one of the funniest and most engaging plays I've seen this year.

Which is quite a surprise! After all, being a God-doubtin' sports-hatin' liberal-girly Yankee, a play about NASCAR is pretty far down the list of things I absolutely gotta see. A few years ago, one of my favorite mystery writers, Sharyn McCrumb, darkened my spirits for months went she turned to the Dark Side with Saint Dale, a Chaucer pastiche extolling the virtues of Big Cars with Big Engines.

But, I gotta tell you, Tradin' Paint doesn't wallow in NASCAR arcania so much as use it as a metaphor (if you'll forgive the highfalutin' word) to talk about all the bumps that come along with life and love and keeping up with the ones who need us. It isn't "about" NASCAR; it's about the people who happen to love it. The writer was even kind enough to have that flag-waving' feller explain all the rules of the game to us, letting' us know that we better NOT confuse a stock car with an Indy car, the biggest difference being that you "can't haul moonshine in an Indy car."

Anyway, once this play gets moving' (and it happens real fast), we meet Darla Frye and her boyfriend Coty Webb. Coty is a dog-catcher who failed the personality test to become a police officer after a high school football accident involving a large opponent and a three-day coma. But, he refuses to take his pills, because he knows they're the government's way to control his mind. Darla is afraid he loves her only for her fried chicken (Note to theatre staff - sell fried chicken at intermission! You'll make a greasy fortune!). After all, she's had those deep emotional insecurities ever since her Daddy walked out when she was four and her Mama drank herself to death.

But, one fateful night, Darla gets a flat tire on a lonely country road. After sitting there for hours, Skeeter Jett's wife and Pit Crew Chief Lucky Tibbs ("I've always been lucky") happens by and teaches Darla how to change a tire. What a liberating moment! After all, Darla has memorized the entire catalogue at the local discount Auto Parts store where she works, so she knows a lug wrench from a hubcap (and their SKU codes). Feeling a wave of Yes-I-Can confidence, she enrolls in a GED class taught by Halley Smoot, who has been left behind by his "committed boyfriend," who, I suppose, was more committed to urban life and "Chelsea Boys."

Before long, a racetrack pileup puts Darla in the hospital, Skeeter in the doghouse, Coty in a quandary, and Halley in Darla's dreams as Dale Earnhart, as Darla's Daddy, and, as God (as if being both God and St. Dale ain't a bit redundant). Act Two actually has some deeply moving moments of real anguish and soul-searching with all the laughs, and it all ends as happily as can expected when folks lose all that built-up gunk (which, I believe, is the technically correct term) that keeps their engines from really gunning for the finish line.

Veronika Duerr brings to Darla a little-girl-lost vulnerability that made me want to throw some tenderness her way even when she was making me laugh. She very convincingly steered her path, the one that took her from the troubled chicken-provider starting line, to the confident grease monkey at the finish. Eric Mendenhall is also wonderful as Coty, taking a character who starts out like an ignorant redneck cliché and ends up as someone with some depth, who may even deserve someone like Darla. Kate Donadio is suitably spunky and sexy as Lucky (who ever thought a baggy burn suit could be so hot?), Chad Martin is wonderfully cocky (and vulnerable) as Skeeter, and Neal A. Ghant brings a winsome charm to Halley (as well as some hairpin high-banked character turns during Darla's coma-dream sequence). Bart Hansard does impressive work in about a half dozen roles, and Matthew Myers and Corey Bradberry bring a distinctive touch to the small roles of Skeeter's on-track competitors.

Tightly directed by Jessica Phelps West, this play zips along so fast, I was actually taken by surprise when I checked my watch at the end. The set is a collage of bits and pieces of the Bristol racetrack which doubles as a lockerful of other locales, and all the technical details fall nicely in place.

But, this is first and foremost, Veronika Duerr's play. She centers it with his charm, her wit, and her energy, bringing a conviction that I found absolutely appealing. Before, I couldn't imagine any NASCAR story I'd like, and, truthfully, I'm still not compelled to go to an actual race. But, I now I'd go see any play any where any time that involves this actress. She had me at "Hello."

The title refers to the practice of stock cars bumping into each other while jockeying for position. It is also a metaphor (Durn! I've gotta find a new word!) for the bumps and bruises we get when we knock into each other while racing around our own life track. I was very glad to trade some paint with this production, and I strongly recommend you do so too!

Start your engines!

Motor Sports Forum:
Tradin' Paint
05/01/2009
It's a racing comedy - and the first line is "Dale Earnhardt is dead. Number Three. The Intimidator. Gone."

And although the sainted Earnhardt makes a cameo victory lap in the second act, the play is a romantic comedy about an auto parts clerk who finds redemption at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

"Stock cars bang into each other all the time. It's called tradin' paint," says the Flagman, one of four characters happily and well played by Bart Hansard. The Flagman's monologues give the audience, many of whom may have never seen a race, a quick drivers' meeting on race action, flags, and characters.

Darla Frye (well-cast and played by Veronika Duerr) and her redneck boyfriend Coty Webb (thinks fast food is hitting a possum at 65 mph) have a relationship in which Darla's fried chicken and turn two at Bristol Motor Speedway are two-thirds of a love triangle. Webb's affable loser is played by Erik Mendenhall, who has the slouch demeanor and foul language perfect.

The racing hero is local boy Skeeter Jett (Chad Martin), who is about to lose his redneck support after hiring a "gee-dee woman" crew chief, Lucky Tibbs, slickly played by Kate Donadio. Jett's crew is dressed out in Zaxby's firesuits, provided by Zaxby's and RAB Racing.

Every scene has great laughs, many provided by Cody Webb, the dogcatcher for the town of Pine Gap, who starred in his mind as a quarterback for the Poca High School Dots.

Another interesting restart comes with the arrival of Halley Smoot, probably the greatest black and gay race fan ever from Kannapolis, NC. He finds Darla and Coty in Bristol's turn two stands, where Coty is exercising his freedom to throw chicken bones at drivers he hates. Neal Ghant, the AJC's 2005 Actor of the Year, drives the Halley Smoot character very well.

There's no way to have a real stock car on stage, but a trio of drivers in fire suits and helmets makes laps around the set, crashing as needed.

Part of the realistic language for the redneck includes multiple gay slurs, and a few F-bombs. The play is advertised for "age 14 and older."

Author Catherine Bush, who lives near Bristol in Abingdon, VA, is an award winning author of several plays and musicals.

The cast and crew spent a Saturday night in the pits and stands at Lanier National Speedway, and visited Bristol Motor Speedway, which has a large but wordless role in the play. None of the cast or crew had ever been to a track.

The non-race fans in the audience when I saw the play (a few laps after the crashfest at Talladega) enjoyed it as much as I did. One did a backflip following the standing ovation, when he won the tickets for Lanier's next show.

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