Joy Avigail Sudduth, Lukey Klein, Julia Brothers, and Mariah Lee Photo by Maria Baranova

Let's stick with this play's distant cousin, Oklahoma!, for a moment. Picture Aunt Eller, friendly but unfussy, caring but tough when she needs to be. Now imagine she has an older sister, oblivious to others' feelings and tough even when she doesn't need to be. That's the character of Mrs. Baker (Julia Brothers giving a pitch-perfect sour performance), who lives and works at the St. Francis Hotel for Ladies and Gents in Claremont, Oklahoma. The year is 1913, just six years after statehood. Mrs. Baker's brother Jim (Richard Lear) owns and runs the hotel, while she is in charge of the dining room. Also living there is Mrs. Baker's teenage daughter Willie (Mariah Lee).

To say that Mrs. Baker and Willie barely get along would be a charitable way to put it. It is easy at first to side with the mother, as Willie is prone to pounding on doors, screaming, and refusing to help with the chores. You think, typical teenage rebellion. But we soon learn there's much more to it, for we find out that the dirt-poor life Mrs. Baker herself has led, working day after day with only her churchgoing to give her any comfort, is the life she expects her daughter to inherit. From that perspective, if you have food and shelter, you are set. Don't expect anything more, certainly not affection, kindness or understanding, any social life, or even schooling. In Mrs. Baker's eyes, these are all unnecessary luxuries.

The play is not all darkness; there are touches of humor sprinkled here and there, even some singing and dulcimer playing. But the playwright has largely painted a portrait of a young woman with a mind of her own who feels caged in and who has few opportunities in life. It is, as well, a portrait of the men (with the exception of her kind-hearted Uncle Jim) who feel absolutely empowered to take advantage of her. Think of those old melodramas about the lecherous landlord and the helpless maiden, but with no hero waiting in the background to come to her rescue. Fortunately, Willie is no helpless maiden; her upbringing has toughened her up enough to face the difficulties she is forced to deal with. And so, with no help from her granite-hearted mother and little enough from her hapless uncle, Willie Baker must free herself and face the world alone.

Sump'n Like Wings is laid out in three acts, or what the playwright refers to as three "episodes," following Willie from the age of 16 to 19 as she strikes out on her own, occasionally returning for short, unrewarding visits. Mariah Lee gives an excellent performance, in perfect counterpoint to Julia Brothers as her unbending, judgmental mother. If the plot is a little clunky, these two bring a charge of realism to it all. Coupled with the playwright's unwillingness to give in to audience-pleasing reconciliation and redemption, that is the greatest strength of the play.

If there is a weakness in the production, it lies in the fact that none of the other performances is nearly so strong as those of this pair. It does seem that director Raelle Myrick-Hodges has worked closely to help shape things around the mother-daughter relationship. Richard Lear's Uncle Jim, while a nice counterpoint to the rancor, takes a back seat. Lukey Klein as Boy Huntington, a married man who is out to seduce Willie, comes off as far too young and immature for the role. Joy Avigail Sudduth does nicely as Jim's assistant, but the rest of the 11-member cast pop in and out without making much of an impression. More attention to these smaller parts would help smooth over the pits and valleys of this look into the rough-and-tumble lives of the residents of small-town Oklahoma, still coming to terms with its recent status as the Indian and Oklahoma Territories.