Heist Play
Written by Mitch Vermeersch
Directed by Allison Shoemaker
at Side Project Theatre, 1439 W. Jarvis (map)
thru Nov 10 | tickets: $17-$20 | more info
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With nothing at stake, ‘Heist’ is an empty exercise in stylized emoting
Ruckus Theater presents
Heist Play
Review by Lawrence Bommer
No question, playwright Mitch Vermeersch loves the conventions and distortions of “film noir,” even if the genre has never taken to theater as it does to black and white, camera-controlling cinema. Vermeersch suggests all the elements that keep us watching—contagious cynicism; down-and-out desperation; convoluted plotting; hard-boiled dialogue; reverses, twists and double crosses; heavy smoking and heavier drinking; reflexive sex; and dead-end destinations.
Unfortunately, in the Ruckus Theater’s remount of their 2009 Heist Play, supposedly revised by the author, those ingredients don’t gel (though the live band is a nice touch). For one thing, the title is a dumb tease. Yes, our three loner losers, stuck in a very unerotic triangle—boozer, slacker Nick (Joshua Davis), mean and driven Tommy (Neal Starbird), and treacherous Marianne (Christine Vrem-Ydstie)—attempt to rob the store where Nick sleeps off his hangovers. But their plot is foiled when the chump gets fired by his sensible boss (Dennis Frymire). No heist here.
So they devise another crack-brained scheme: write a screenplay about a heist that will make lots of money, and then move to somewhere warmer than Chicago. This leads the inept trio to meet a writer/hitman (Mike Steele), a dupe from Central Casting (Anthony Stamillo), a faithless wife (Carmen Molina), and two corrupt or incompetent female detectives (Catherine Bullard and Karie Miller) who are stalking for a murder much closer to home.
Sadly, many frustratingly arbitrary scenes meant to depict these desultory and purposeless encounters subtract rather than add up. (Too clever for its own good, there are just too many Maguffins, red herrings, false leads and straw men by half.) There’s no point to the plot (which may perversely be the point), except to watch Nick get beat up by life as the self-denigrating wastrel finds his inheritance put to bad use.
Director Allison Shoemaker never moves it fast enough, but in her defense so many meetings here lead nowhere. Worse, the secrets saved up aren’t worth the trouble of discovering and, in any case, are cryptically concealed by a kind of camouflage of confusion.
By the end Heist Play exposes itself an empty exercise in stylized emoting, its histrionics wasted when nothing seems to be at stake. It’s easy to say it’s too damn long but this is the kind of indulgent script where, once you start cutting, it all seems disposable.
Rating: ★½
Heist Play continues through November 10th at the Side Project Theatre, 1439 W. Jarvis (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays 2pm. Tickets are $17-$20, and are available online through BrownPaperTickets.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at RuckusTheater.org. (Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes, includes an intermission)
Photos by Zachary T. Webb
artists
cast
Catherine Bullard (Tierney, others), Dan Caffrey (Bandleader), Joshua Davis (Nick), Karie Miller (Deitrich), Anthony Stamilio (Kevin, others), Dennis Frymire (Frank, others), Brian Hurst (Bartender, others), Carmen Molina (Maggie, others), Neal Starbird (Tommy), Mike Steele (Murphy), Christine Vrem-Ydstie (Marianne)
band
Mad Dan Caffrey, Brian Hurst, Dennis Frymire, Mike Steele, Catherine Bullard, Anthony Stamilio, Carmen Molina.
behind the scenes
Allison Shoemaker (director), Christine Grodecki (lighting design), Daniel Caffrey (sound design), Jessica Reese (dramaturg), Casey Bentley (properties design), Ashley Ann Woods (costume design), Nick Shaw (scenic design), Dustin Spence (production manager), Kate Leslie (assistant director), Kristin Davis (stage manager), Joshua Davis and Carmen Molina (choreography), Zachary T. Webb (photos)
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