The mesmerizing drama details Black pioneer women on the Kansas plains.

A compelling tale of survival partners with flawless acting and thoughtful stagecraft in Flyin’ West — now playing at Theatreworks through July 27.

Set in the all-Black town of Nicodemus, Kansas in 1898, the story follows three sisters who have migrated west as homesteaders in the post-slavery era. Flanked by friends and foes, their sisterhood and grit breeds resilience as they battle sexism, violence and the threat of white land speculators who want to take it all away.

Playwright Pearl Cleage cleverly weaves complex characters into her plotline, setting up heady internal struggles. While Nicodemus, Kansas is real, the play’s characters are fictitious. However, embracing realism, Cleage’s script does not sidestep the dialect of the times. Brace yourself for the discomfort.

Friend to the sisters, Miss Leah, is embodied to perfection by veteran actor Lynne Hastings. Recently seen in this season’s Sister Act at the Fine Arts Center, Hastings plays a former slave who has endured profound losses — including the death and sale of 10+ children back on the plantation. Wise and spry, she and the eldest sister Sophie (Kristina Fountaine) share pithy barbs that lead to profound truths as a foundation for the story to come.

Tresha Farris and Bobby Bennett in ‘Flyin’ West.’ | Photo: Theatreworks

Performance highlights

Fountaine amazes (and amuses) as the gun-toting, chaps-wearing bad-ass sister, quick to judge and slow to forgive. Sophie is vocal and militant in stopping the displacement of the Black community by white developers who want to buy their land.

A Denver native with a BFA, Fountaine’s regional credits include Stickfly and The Liar at the Arvada Center, Cullud Wattah at Curious Theatre and The Social Dilemma on Netflix. While sneering or chewing her tobacco, she never loses character: eating with her fingers with legs decidedly unladylike to underscore her rough-and-tumble persona.

Sophie and Miss Leah are synchronous: one early scene radiates their comic pairing as the two spar over Sophie’s coffee-making skills (or lack of).

The play’s tragedy involves little sister Minnie (Tresha Farris) swept off her feet by the dapper Frank Charles (Bobby Bennett). The well-dressed pair have come back to the prairie for a visit from their high life in London. Timid and sporting a shiner, the family realizes she has been beaten and bamboozled by her violent husband who faces financial ruin and seeks to swindle the sisters.

Here is another twist where the playwright surfaces a real but shadowed fallout to the post-war Black experience: the mixed-race offspring of the wealthy whites who face prejudice from both sides. Frank has been discarded by his father’s family and is held in a no-man’s land of disgrace and bridled anger. His eyes speak to his pain when his words do not.

Farris is the perfect victim to Bennett’s self-hatred. Yet the build is subtle, her awakening plausible but hurried by the domineering Sophie who rallies to expose his duplicity.

Newcomers to Theatreworks, Farris and Bennett host impressive acting credits. As Sara in The Confederates at the Curious Theatre Company and appearing in JQA with the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, Farris also hold creative and writing credits including One Way Back-Day and The Rough with The Catamounts.

Bennett is on OSCA award winner who has been critically acclaimed for his work in The Inheritance at Vintage Theatre, and You Enjoy Myself with Local Theatre Company. He was a top 24 finalist on the fifth season of American Idol. From his dazzling eyes to his delivery and commanding stage presence, Bennett is one with Frank Charles.

From left: Cheerish Martin, Kristine Fountaine and Calvin Thompson in ‘Flyin’ West.’ | Photo: Theatreworks

Love story

The play is not without a love story and middle sister Fannie (Cheerish Martin) and Calvin Thompson, as the affable Wil Parish, charm the audience with their clever verbal play. With numerous off-Broadway credits, Thompson has toured with such hits as Harlem Hellfighters on a Latin Beat, The Falling Season and Couriers and Contrabands.

Another regular on regional stages, Martin is the perfect Pollyanna of the sisters. She bustles and fusses but raises her cackles with credibility when the family is threatened. Where Sophie is off the rails and Minnie is frightened, Martin can ground herself and bring them all back to center. A 2022 Henry Award winner, her favorite credits reflect her range from Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Steel Magnolias and The Taming of the Shrew.

Hats off to the show’s creative team. Set Designer Dan Porten channels a period-perfect Kansas homesteader’s cabin. His small but clever set takes us from a garden at dawn and dusk, to a bedroom and common room with ease, aided by amber lighting and lanterns that turn on and off in perfect harmony.

This reviewer notes that the actors’ boots were dusty as they would be on the plains. No Urban Cowboys in this play! Accolades to Costume Design Nicole Watts who clearly gave close attention to the minutia of costuming her cast in periodic garb that didn’t scream Goodwill Halloween find.

The full house on the opening Saturday of Flyin’ West seemed mesmerized by the story, its unfolding, and the creative talents of both cast and crew. Equal parts entertainment and history lesson, the play is a tribute to the true grit it takes now and then to survive and thrive in a world of unrelenting injustices.

Lynne Hastings as Miss Leah | Photo: Theatreworks