Street Justice:
Condition Red
Written by Anthony Touris and Colin Milroy
Directed by Mike Ooi
at Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston (map)
thru Dec 14 | tickets: $20 | more info
Check for half-price tickets
Read review
The streets are paved with laughter
Factory Theater presents
Street Justice: Condition Red
Review by Keith Glab
“How about we kill more bad guys and make less creepy statements?”
It’s a formula you’ve seen a dozen times before. An ultraconservative cop is paired with a wild card, and the two butt heads before learning from each other and saving the day. The Factory Theater presents a parody of these 1980s police movies in Street Justice: Condition Red.
As the audience enters, pre-recorded movie previews project onto a backdrop. This backdrop then cleverly splits off into four triangular columns that allow for set changes between domestic locations, street settings, and scenes set in the police station.
Writers Colin Milroy and Anthony Tournis double as the comically mismatched policemen. Milroy portrays the paperwork-loving Brad Truman, whose experiences in Vietnam prevent him from getting intimate with his sexually frustrated fiancée (Robyn Coffin). Tournis makes Wade Dalton a lovably selfish womanizer who kicks butt and then asks questions later. The two protagonists unravel a fiendish plot involving Soviets, East Germans, Truman’s sister and Dalton’s ex-partner.
The rest of the 15-actor cast gets to portray big, fun characters as well. Mandy Walsh and Laura Korn form a pair of extremely sharp female officers who get dismissed by their male counterparts. Sara Gorsky is a villainous dominatrix, Kevin Alves is a quirky torturer, and Chris Walsh gets to portray both the coolly menacing Mister Blade and the hilariously unconcerned Dr. Merkin. Dan Krall stands out as the gruff, no-nonsense police chief who brandishes every scene with his coffee mug, thick mustache, and thicker Chicago accent. The rest of the cast is uneven in their execution of various accents, but given the facetious tone of the evening, it doesn’t detract much from audience enjoyment.
The script provides more than just big slapstick humor – it is packed with well-turned phrases delivered with great comedic inflection by the cast. Some fun gimmicks include aborted flashback sequences, a montage, and stagehands dressed like ninjas. The troupe realizes the requisite climactic cliff scene particularly well.
On opening night, the cast did a great job of working an uproarious audience. There were a couple of technical miscues, such as one of the triangular backdrop pieces being turned the wrong way or a prop getting misplaced. The actors were often able to correct these via improvisation. Indeed, on a couple of occasions, I wasn’t positive whether something had actually gone awry or whether it was all part of the self-deprecation.
Street Justice: Condition Red doesn’t try to present itself as anything more than an action comedy romp poking fun at both Hollywood movie conventions and itself. Because the production doesn’t try to do too much, it succeeds. Rated R.
Rating: ★★★
Street Justice: Condition Red continues through December 14th at Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston (map), with performances Fridays-Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays 3pm. Tickets are $20, and are available by phone (866-811-4111) or online through OvationTix.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at FactoryTheater.com. (Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission)
Photos by Dan Tamarkin
artists
cast
Kevin Alves (Streak), Lauren Bourke (Juliet Truman), Robyn Coffin (Donna Dixon), Natalie DiCristofano (Sherry), James Errico (Dutch), Sara Gorsky (Ursula von Hodenesser), Laura Korn (Officer Karen McLaren), Dan Krall (Captain Taggerty), Roy Gonzalez (Private Osborne), Colin Milroy (Brad Truman), Daniel Planz (Fritz Gruber), Dennis Schnell (Johannes Finkelstein), Anthony Tournis (Wade Dalton), Christopher M. Walsh (Mister Blade), Mandy Walsh (Officer Danielle Dugan), Hannah Alcorn (Swing, understudy), Stacie Barra (understudy)
behind the scenes
Mike Ooi (director), Jill Oliver (asst. director), Jermaine Thomas (stage manager), Justin Snyder (technical director), Angelina Martinez (set design), Shannon Evans (lighting), Chas Vrba (sound design), Rachel Sypniewski (costumes), Hubert J. Propman (props), Matt Engle (violence director), Johnny Moran (video director), Shannon O’Neill (cinematographer), Jason Moody (graphic designer, composer), Blake Dalzin (composer), Patrick Holland (video trailer), Tom Aufmann (Master of the Mystic Arts), Dan Tamarkin (photos)
13-1117
