Theater Review
Passion Play
Men of Steel
“A Steady Rain”
Written by Keith Huff
Showing: Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave., through Oct. 28
Tickets: $22-$28
Contact: (312) 633-0630; www.chicagodramatists.org
By Brian Kirst
Contributing writer
With one eye zeroing in on neo-noir crime drama and the other targeting the emotional complexities of male friendships, Chicago Dramatists’ premiere production of Keith Huff’s “A Steady Rain” hits its dramatic targets with point-blank precision. That it also loosely examines the aftermath of one of Illinois’ fairly recent real life crime tragedies is the bloody cherry on an already battle-scarred cake.
Huff’s drama is a monologue-based excursion into the dark souls of two Chicago beat cops and lifelong best friends. The volatile Denny has recently helped alcoholic Joey conquer his most recent fight with the bottle. The relentless month-long rainfall they’re experiencing is a portent of despair though, not hope. Soon, family man Denny’s affair with a local prostitute sends her pimp into revenge mode. The bullets fired one glass-shattering evening signal the beginning of Denny’s rage-filled downfall. Frightened by his anger, Denny’s wife begins to find understanding in Joey’s arms. Meanwhile the tension between the men causes them to misjudge an important call for help. With their jobs on the line, the bonds between the two are irreparably altered and their lives are permanently transformed.
Huff beautifully delineates his two characters. Joey, the kinder soul, struggles to enrich himself while trying to remain true to the often-brutal Denny. Denny, involved in the scabrous underworld of cops on the take is also a devoted friend and family man. He is part savage, embracing his excessive inner nature, and part misguided missionary, trying to tame the wilds of his own soul. Ultimately, Joey and Denny come alive on stage and are evidence of Huff’s powerful skill. Huff’s plot, meanwhile, is also wildly detailed and engaging. It is almost too full, though. In fact, the blend of violent betrayals, savage murders and emotional standoffs seems at times more suited for a cinematic offering. While the characters ultimately ground the proceedings, the simple structure of the piece is ultimately strained somewhat by the excessiveness of the action. Most interesting is the audience’s realization of who these characters represent in our local crime history. To examine the emotional complexities and pains of a pair who have been publicly demonized is a bold and intriguing concept. It is also one that is worthy of revelation within the show’s context and not to be spoiled here in the printed word.
Director Russ Tutterow moves the tale swiftly and efficiently along. His main strength is the detailed, nuanced performances he is able to cultivate from his two worldly performers. As Joey, Peter DeFaria brings a bruised demeanor and strangled goodness directly to the fore. Joey’s struggles are rendered with sensitive perfection and DeFaria manages to deliver the character’s wounded heart right into the audience’s hands. Randy Steinmeyer’s crooked Denny, meanwhile, is a tour de force portrayal of a conflicted personage pushed to the limits. Steinmeyer fully explores all the avenues of Denny’s twisted existence. He creates a living, breathing entity. He is your neighbor, the man on the news, the guy sitting next to you watching the Sox game at Higgins’ Tavern.
Ultimately, whether passionately deconstructing the deep layers of love in male friendship or investigating the seamy underbelly of corruption in the streets of Chicago, Chicago Dramatists’ “A Steady Rain” provides an emotionally potent evening at the theater.
“Passion Play”
Written by Sarah Ruhl
Showing: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, through Oct. 21
Tickets: $30-$70
Contact: (312) 443-3800
By Lawrence Bommer
CFP theater editor
The specific “Passion” in Sarah Ruhl’s three-act triptych is of course a presentation of the last days of Jesus Christ, as enacted in three local pageants across four centuries. Showing how life mocks art, the same character types revert to kind—a village idiot, an unfaithful girl playing Mary, closeted lesbian lovers in England and male ones in Germany and bombastic authority figures (respectively, Queen Elizabeth, Hitler and Reagan). The contrast between their sacred roles and real lives is exploited for dramatic effect. (For instance, traumatized by war, the 1969 Pontius Pilate refuses to wash his hands of the blood of an innocent victim.)
Parallel situations or events (preparation for war, rehearsal chaos, a procession of larger-than-life fishes, a scary red sky) bedevil these troubled “Passions.” They’re played out in a British hamlet in 1575 (where “Passion” plays are feared as dangerous holdovers from the former Catholic faith), Oberammergau, Germany, circa 1934 (where the play’s anti-Semitism perfectly complements Nazi propaganda), and Spearfish, South Dakota, between 1969 and 1984 (where backstage shenanigans almost erupt in a “crime of passion” play).
Ruhl (whose “Clean House” also liked to stir things up) tackles many truths here—the unholy marriage of politics and religion, the disconnect between mortals’ make-believe and their real motivations and the self-fulfilling power of a play to alter everyone connected with it. But the overlong, cluttered and scattershot plot, directionless dialogue, quixotic symbol-mongering, knee-jerk magic realism, self-indulgent side scenes and aimless, lazy apostrophes to the audience take a cumulative toll. The third act self-destructs as it lurches off in a dozen inconclusive directions. Worst of all, we never get a sense of what the “Passion” play really means to its participants, the benchmark from which we can measure their assorted departures from the dream. Instead we get a toxic fusion of the condescension of “Waiting for Guffman” with the calculated irreverence of “Springtime for Hitler,” always minus the fun.
Actor/teacher Mark Wing-Davey knows his way through the dramatic labyrinths of this sprawling and unfocused trilogy but not so well that an audience can’t go missing in (the) action. How does Hitler’s anti-Semitism fit Queen Elizabeth’s anti-Papist rant, then fit Ronald Reagan’s genial Know-Nothingism? It’s safer to dwell on such acting epiphanies as Joaquin Torres’ questing Jesus, Kristen Bush’s very merry Mary, Polly Noonan’s “fool of God” village idiot and T. Ryder Smith’s tour de force as the play-acting political icons of their era. These performances, necessarily rich diversions from a squandered script, get us through the 220 minutes without suspending too much disbelief. If only there were real passion in “Passion Play.”
“Men of Steel”
Written by Qui Nguyen
Showing: Theatre Wit and Theatre Building, 1225 W. Belmont, through Oct. 28
Tickets: $25
Contact: (773) 327-5252
By Lawrence Bommer
CFP theater editor
It’s not easy for humans to lose that all-important third dimension in order to become comic characters. An action satire by Qui Nguyen, “Men of Steel” plays hard and fast with the genre, evoking the old “Batman” T.V. series with its “pow-sock!” combat (choreographed by Kevin Murphy and Tony Sancho) but overlaying the kid’s stuff with a wry look at the price of a superhero’s standing out. (This script owes its inspiration to “The Incredibles” animated film and the “X Men” trilogy.) Though lacking the ingenuity of The House Theatre’s fantasy depictions, Theatre Wit’s Chicago premiere never drops its energy or misses a caption.
The complex plot (which includes a few too many flashbacks and back stories) centers on Jason (stalwart, square-jawed Robert McLean), a prep student with special powers who turns himself into Captain Justice, joined by his slick sidekick Lady Liberty (Kelly Ristow), a public relations hype-spinner. Adding more conflict than the usual evildoers deliver, Captain Justice has an uncertain ally named Maelstrom, a classmate sans superpowers whose duty is to test his friend’s commitment to the cause. Other supposed “supers” include Los Hermanos (the delightful duo of Frederick Harris and Bryson Engelen), two would-be inner-city crime-fighters in Brooklyn; Andy, a gay avenger who lamely transforms himself into The Hooded Menace; and a self-appointed drag-queen heroine from Mobile known as Bryant the Indestructible because he can’t be hurt. (Naturally, this immunity opens up a crazy career as a prostitute who can handle anything a sadist can imagine.)
When Captain Justice is imprisoned for murdering the killers of his ardent wife Helen (Erin Myers), “Men of Steel” climaxes with an inconclusive, strobe-lit showdown at the Nevada prison of Steel City. If the fight seems gratuitous, clearly it’s perfect comic-book material.
Fueled by Joseph Fosco’s pile-driving sound design and wonderful video and animation by Jessica Ross and Robert Ross Parker, Jeremy Wechsler’s slam-bang, film-noir staging moves things at warp speed, so fast you can’t wonder about what’s missing till it’s over. Then it hits you: This plot-crazy thriller might have slowed down to more carefully convey its darker truths. There are useful lessons, however: Even superheroes have human failings and we all harbor the power to be greater than our lots in life. If we didn’t have superheroes, we’d just have to invent them, which, of course, we did.