Theater review: 'Water by the Spoonful'

Theater review: 'Water by the Spoonful'

Richard Termine/Photo by RICHARD TERMINE

Zabryna Guevara (l.) and Armando Riesco in Quiara Alegria Hudes' play at Second Stage

Nothing like winning a 2012 Pulitzer to boost expectations for a play.

So it goes for Quiara Alegría Hudes’ “Water by the Spoonful,” a sobering saga that follows a returning Iraq War vet and other haunted souls.

The drama, part two of a trilogy that began with “Elliot, a Soldiers’ Fugue” in 2006, rises to the high level of anticipation in several ways. It swirls in narrative complexity and ambition. It flows with compassion. Characters are vivid and the acting is uniformly strong.

On the downside, “Spoonful” sinks due to the author’s tendency to overstate and spell out themes.

“Dissonance is still a gateway to resolution,” declares Yaz (Zabryna Guevara), who teaches jazz at Swarthmore in Philadelphia. Thanks for the news flash; she’s not just talking about music.

Ask Yaz’s beloved cousin, Elliot (a terrific Armando Riesco), who’s eking out a living in a sandwich shop after serving in the Marines. His leg is mangled. His mind is mauled by memories of his mother and men he’s killed in battle. Harmony eludes him. Pills numb his pain.

While Yaz and Elliot grapple with a crisis, ex-crackheads struggle to stay clean via an Internet chat room. Its organizer, who goes by the handle of Haikumom (Liza Colón-Zayas), proves an invaluable lifeline for excitable Orangutan (Sue Jean Kim), who’s starting over in Japan; wise Chutes and Ladders (Frankie R. Faison), an elderly man whose addiction cost him his son, and unsteady Fountainhead (Bill Heck), a corporate hotshot who’s fallen and wants to get up.

Ping-ponging plot lines eventually weave together. Longstanding connections snap as new ones are forged. The play is ultimately about stepping up, bridging gaps and trading drug dependence for reliance on relationships. All worthwhile, if not exactly earth-shattering.

Director Davis McCallum moves the show along smoothly, including tricky online scenes. Neil Patel’s evocative abstract set adds its own textures.

Hudes, who wrote the book to the musical “In the Heights,” has an ear for dialogue and offhanded humor. Describing his mother’s many skeletons, Elliot says, “She’s an archeological dig.”

The show is less successful when it turns overly poetic â€" or strives for significance, including a final image that reaches for something holy.

“Water by the Spoonful” is a fine play. It’d be better if it didn’t underestimate audiences and spoonfeed them.