Superior Donuts

by Tracy Letts

Superior Donuts takes place in the historic Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, where Arthur Przybyszewski runs the donut shop that has been in his family for sixty years. Franco Wicks, a young black man and Arthur's only employee, wants to modernize the shop, while Arthur is more content to spend the day smoking weed and reminiscing about his Polish immigrant father. This provocative comedy, set in the heart of one of Chicago's most diverse communities, explores the challenges of embracing the past and the redemptive power of friendship.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Fiction, Theatre, Contemporary, American

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Tracy Letts is an American playwright and actor who received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play August: Osage County.

Letts was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma to best-selling author Billie Letts, of Where The Heart Is and The Honk And Holler Opening Soon fame, and the late college professor and actor Dennis Letts. His brother Shawn is a jazz musician and composer. He also has a brother Dana. Letts was raised in Durant, Oklahoma and graduated from Durant High School in the early 1980s. He moved to Dallas, where he waited tables and worked in telemarketing while starting as an actor. He acted in Jerry Flemmons' O Dammit!, which was part of a new playwrights series sponsored by Southern Methodist University.

Letts moved to Chicago at the age of 20, and worked for the next 11 years at Steppenwolf and Famous Door. He's still an active member of the Steppenwolf company today. He was a founding member of Bang Bang Spontaneous Theater, whose members included Greg Kotis (Tony Award-winner for Urinetown), Michael Shannon (Academy Award-nominee for Revolutionary Road), Paul Dillon, and Amy Pietz. In 1991, Letts wrote the play Killer Joe. Two years later, the play premiered at the Next Lab Theater in Chicago, followed by the 29th Street Rep in NYC. Since then, Killer Joe has been performed in at least 15 countries in 12 languages.

In 2008, Letts won a Tony and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for August: Osage County. It had premiered in Chicago in 2007, before moving to New York. It opened on Broadway in 2007 and ran into 2009.

His mother Billie Letts has said of his writing, "I try to be upbeat and funny. Everybody in Tracy's stories gets naked or dead." Letts' plays have been about people struggling with moral and spiritual questions. He says he was inspired by the plays of Tennessee Williams and the novels of William Faulkner and Jim Thompson. Letts considers sound to be a very strong storytelling tool for theater.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I live in/around Chicago so have seen Tracy Letts act on the Steppenwolf Theater stage (and in films) many times. And I have seen a few of his plays. I'm a fan. It says on his bio here that he thinks of his major influences as Faulkner, Tennessee Williams and Jim Thompson. I can see that. But I think of his most celebrated play, August: Osage County, as his Eugene O'Neill play, and his plays such as Superior Donuts as David Mamet plays--Chicago plays, focused on Chicago language and characters. In the vein of Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo. Character-driven plays. And maybe in part because of the violence in them I am reminded here of the plays of Sam Shepherd, too.

Arthur, a late fifties sort of ex-hippie, owns the independent Superior Donuts and one day it gets vandalized. A neighborhood cop, Randy (a woman) wants to try to figure it out. Then a kid, Franco, walks in, and wants a job. He's writing The Great American Novel, at 20, he is deep in debt for gambling, as Arthur resists his own attraction to Randy, and resists selling his place to Max. Friendships develop, we like these people. we laugh with them. I know Uptown Chicago and these folks seem like they are from this area. The resolution has a little hope in it. Not too much, but some. I really like it a lot.

[Seyed Mohammad Reza Mahdavi · Rating 3 out of 5]

من این نمایشنامه را قبلا از نشر جغد خوانده بودم
این ترجمه بسیار بهتر از قبلی بود . اصلا خواندن ترجمه نشر جغد را پیشنهاد نمی کنم

[Seyed Mohammad Reza Mahdavi · Rating 2 out of 5]

نمایشنامه دونات های عالی
تریسی لتس
ترجمه معین محب علیان
نشر جغد
تعداد صفحات 92

این نمره ای که دادم صرفا به خاطر ترجمه کتاب است. ترجمه خوبی ندارد. متن را می فهمی ولی اجازه نمی ده ازش لذت ببری. این کتاب را نشر افراز هم منتشر کرده. از کیفیت اون ترجمه خبر ندارم ولی این کتاب را پیشنهاد نمی دم

[Steven Felicelli · Rating 1 out of 5]

The lovable broken-English capitalist, the sage homeless woman from a Spike Lee film, the tight-lipped Donut man wowed by the brilliant young black man's Joe Gould manuscript. An unlikely friendship. It's like Letts scrolled through personae and plots in a playwright video game.

And then there's the stage directions for the fight scene.

Made for TV theatre.

[Taylor Hudson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely a disappointing venture for Tracy Letts. He has proven himself to be one of the best playwrights alive, but this play just doesn't live up to his previous work. The soliloquies seem odd and don't quite fit the style, we have a slew of unchanging background characters, and a very trite garnish of plot involving a gambling debt that is so far removed from the growth of the two main characters that it is pointless.

The redeeming qualities of this play lie in the two beautiful characters Arthur and Franco, and their growing friendship. Their relationship and connection over Franco's newly finished "Great American Novel" is so lovely that it makes it even more disappointing that the plot had to unfold the way it did - or that it had to be dropped on us half way through the second act.

Can we just take these two characters and their relationship and move them to a new play, please?

[Jackson Burnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way too many too many witty words. The story arc drops into the play as if the author all of a sudden remembered a story line was needed. This should not have been a final draft.

[Hank Lin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since O'Neill, the great American play has been in a constant state of flux, reinventing itself, but always finding the remnants of its melodramatic, poetical, and sometimes suprarealistic forbears. Superior Donuts gestates on the principal questions of the American play: the working class, the American Dream, the dissolution of marriage, failed father figures, and others. It's both enhanced and diminished by the American drama's constricting vision. There isn't as much grandstanding, or vast revelations of character. The audience may not be seized by the recognition of pity and fear. But it does manage to creep up, slowly and unpretentiously, to a moment's recognition, of sadness or sympathy. Like a ghost in the shell, which is really all I can call the American play, it's a hollowed out form of its former self. That's not a bad thing, though, as it is all a matter of taste. We keep asking ourselves, when we watch or read a new American play, where is the Imago that was supposed to blossom out of its cocoon? But in this new era, the medium elects to show you the remnants of the chrysalis; the butterfly is nowhere to be found, but the shell is evidence that it must exist, right?

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw a production of this play in Boston last year and was incredibly moved. I really wanted to read the script, to see if it read as well as it played (which unfortunately, is not always the case), and I have to say, it was just as moving to read this piece as it was to see-so much so, that I was sobbing on the train on the way to work this morning when I finished it. The thing I really adore about Mr. Letts' work is that it's real-whether reading it or seeing it, you know these people-they aren't characters, they are fully realized human beings, flaws and joys and all.

[Clifton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This play felt like mandatory reading, honestly. 14 years ago I wrote this play that took place at an old diner in Uptown...and it never came close to this characterization or tension or wit. The voices here are clear and wonderful. Worth reading (and emulating), especially for those of us that lived in this neighborhood.

[Kristen · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading August Osage County, this was a real let down. I feel like I've read this story a million times and there's really nothing original about it. It's a well written story, but just forgettable. There's just not much here. Letts has done much better than this.

[♥ Sandi ❣ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mediocre story. Play may have come across better. Odd mix of people come together in a failing donut shop.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having seen the TV show first, I definitely enjoy the show more.

[Steven Owad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Owad’s Micro-Review #33

Forget the CBS comedy series of the same title. The play that inspired it exists on a higher plane. Unlike Letts’ darker and better-known plays, this one is a bit of a bonbon—a heart-warmer with an optimistic soul. The story: an ageing white doughnut shop owner hires a young black gambling addict who wants to write the Great American Novel. So the themes you might expect—race, addiction, the bridging of generations—are all here, but there’s also a poignant portrait of a Chicago community in flux. This type of life-affirming story won’t change the world, but it might make you care a little more for your fellow man. For that, it deserves an emphatic two thumbs up. Feb. 18, 2021

[Catherine Greenfeder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Filled with humor and pathos as the owner of a run-down donut shop in the historic Uptown neighborhood of Chicao, Arthur Przybysweski, hires Franco Wicks, a young black man who wants to modernize the shop. Franco lets Arthur in on his dream of becoming a writer, allowing him to read the draft of his novel, and Arthur lets Franco in on the depth of his loss over his wife who abandoned him and the daughter he has not seen in years. Friendship gives each the courage to make changes in their lives. Although Franco's gambling problem gets him in trouble, Arthur comes through to ensure that Franco will be protected and know that he can have a better future. Well done!

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very funny, gritty resurrection of what David Mamet captures in his timeless "American Buffalo". Poor people in a doomed Chicago business battle outside forces--but mostly themselves. The dialogue is fast and filled with character. The nobility of honest work versus young grifting isn't too sentimentally handled, and the laughs are throughout. The oddballs are constantly interesting. Not a lot of surprises, but it's definitely an actor's show. Considering the subject matter about grim capitalism and zero futures, there's also a minimum of Sam Shepard hallucinatory moments or abstractions. And no monologues!

[Douglas Castagna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I watched the show first and noticed by the third episode that it was based on this play. The show is a comedy, and the play, well, that is not a comedy.

Some things are carried over, but the play is much darker, and sad, and full of pain and humor, and sadness, and redemption and all the motions of the human condition. The play goes by fast as it is around 90 pages and I would imagine just about an hour and a half of live action. There is a lot happening here and a lot of subtext as well. A good solid play from a a writer we have come to expect greatness from.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it's not August Osage County, but would you want the whole world to be that messed up? There's still plenty to think about in this much simpler play about an aging doughnut shop owner and the young black man he hires. It's about how communities evolve over time, about the baggage of failed marriages, the tension between idealism and past mistakes, unlikely friendships and different versions of the American dream. The sitcom may have somewhat trivialized this, but it's still a good piece of theatre.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The French have a donut thru call pet de none, which means "nun's fart." The story is that a young nun living in an abbey was presiding s meal when she suddenly...emitted flatus. The other nuns laughed at her and she was so startled that she dropped a ball of dough into the bubbling cauldron, accidentally inventing the donut.

[Adrian Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always delighted to read plays that focus in on oddly matched friendships. The chemistry between Arthur and Franco is clear on the page, and I can just imagine seeing it onstage and smiling as they talk about their dreams. This play touches on themes of racism, immigration, vices, history catching up to you, and the ability or inability to change your future. I think this play is lovely.

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gosh I love Tracy Letts’ plays so much! Even with that ending I put the book down with such a big smile on my face! There is hope! What a lovely tale about friendship and hope. It’s never too late!
I think this would be even better if I were to see it performed.
Not as much went on as some of Tracy’s plays but I loved it.

[Erin Cleary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very engrossed in this story. The conversation felt natural and the characters (especially Franco) felt fully realized and complex. I wanted more! I thought it ended way too quickly, and I guess that leaves it up to us to theorize about what comes next, but I still craved more, especially the relationship between Arthur and Franco, as that is the heart of this story.

[robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saw an unreal production by the defunct Mary Archie Theater Company. Brought my Auntie Rita who was visiting from Ireland and we felt like we were in the donut shop because the actors were often about six feet away from us. I doubt any staging will ever match the one we saw.

[Brian McCann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tracy Letts is a solid American playwright. While not as earth-shattering as his AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, SUPERIOR DONUTS is a sharp glimpse into contemporary, urban struggles of the American working class, immigrants, small urban business. I appreciate Letts’ storytelling and authenticity.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked this one!

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. I liked it and thought the friendships were really nice and it was also funny sometimes but didn't leave a huge impact overall, even though it could have.

[Mars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Underrated. Funny and heart-wrenching

[David Krajicek · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story, while engaging, strikes me as underdeveloped, with characters cut from cardboard.

[Theo Chen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not his best, charming characters and inoffensive plot. But shallow. What’s the point?

[Jenny Petticord · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first half. I'm curious to watch the TV series.

[Debby · Rating 4 out of 5]

review here