Cherry Smoke

The visceral account of a fighter haunted by his past and heavy-handed temper

Review by Michael Collins | 17 Aug 2007
Cherry Smoke, the winning entry of last year’s Princess Grace Award for playwriting, tells the story of Fish, a successful back alley boxer in Pittsburgh who’s short fuse frequently leads him to the county jail. His inability to restrain himself when outside the ring causes pain to the few people who remain close to him, and ultimately results in disaster.

This is not just testosterone-filled destruction, as the chronological progression is broken by frequent flashbacks that paint a poverty-rife picture of Fish’s childhood. These fragments of history illuminate and help endear us to his character, revealing traumatic incidents from the past.

Soon Fish and his Bukowski-esque rage against the world becomes somewhat more understandable. His rage however tears him apart as he fights the only way he knows how: drunk and to the bitter end. As he says in the opening, “Punch till you can’t punch no more. Then punch some more.” But those punches never come for Fish.

Staged simply, Cherry Smoke takes place with nothing else but a bench, a couple of beers and the four actors on stage. In a festival that has enough spectacle to keep half the jaws of the city glued to the floor for a month this play makes for a refreshing change. Cherry Smoke manages to simultaneously shock and charm in a production that could, if given more space, grow into something big.