'Superior Donuts' at Arden Theatre: Worth a dunk

Like most doughnuts, even superior ones,

Superior Donuts

- Tracy Letts' newest play now at the Arden Theatre - is a tasty snack, not a meal. But under Edward Sobel's solid direction, a superb cast turns in surgically precise character studies that are moving and engaging, despite a script punctuated by awkward soliloquies and stuffed with too many Important Ideas.

The locale is a dilapidated doughnut shop in an iffy neighborhood where the only urban improvement is a Starbucks. Kevin Depinet's set evokes an old-fashioned mom-and-pop store - only now there's just Pop, Arthur (Craig Spidle), who inherited it from his pop. A few tables, a few stools at the counter create the perfect setting for a crossroads. Another diner play.

The Russian entrepreneur next door (David Mackay in a hilarious and touching performance) embodies the energy of the immigrant dream of America, which must have been Arthur's father's dream when he arrived from Poland. Arthur, who stopped dreaming long ago, hires Franco (James Ijames continues his young career of outstanding performances), a funny, cheery African American who is another ambitious, optimistic dreamer. But Franco is deeply in debt to a nasty bookie (Pete Pryor) and his violent henchman (Jake Blouch), although the whole gambling subplot seems just a contrivance to include evil onstage.

Franco has written what he is sure will be the great American novel, titling it America Will Be. The play we're watching seems to be a version of that novel: generations of American dreamers, all shapes, sizes, colors, nationalities, who are all trying to be.

Spidle paints, in his every vague and helpless gesture, the portrait of Arthur as a lonely man who knows he's lost all the important battles in his life: His daughter's gone, his draft evasion is a source of shame, he's unable to talk to anybody about anything personal, including the cop (Jennifer Barnhart) who is romantically interested in him. His ponytail, his Pink Floyd T-shirt, and the tape on his eyeglasses all advertise his past-ness. And then he has the fight of his life (bravo to John Bellomo, fight choreographer).

Various neighbors turn up: Lady (Nancy Boykin who in only a few lines conveys wisdom, sadness, and starch), a burly cop (Brian Anthony Wilson) who declares sweetly, "I hate it when people are mad at me," and a young Russian goon (Ian Bedford) who is smitten with a bartender he's too shy to talk to.

The play's world is one of desperation and poverty and meanness and regret, but the play we're watching is full of friendship and generosity and good deeds. Superior Donuts, lacking the ferocity of Letts' earlier work (Bug, August: Osage Country), is a little sugary, but still tasty.

Through April 3 at Arden Theatre Company, 40 N. Second St. Tickets $20-$48. Information: 215-922-1122 or www.ardentheatre.org.EndText