A Steady Rain

Performing at GableStage (Mar 3 - Apr 1)

Synopsis

This hard-hitting Broadway smash chronicles love and rage on the streets of Chicago. A domestic disturbance call sends two cops, friends since childhood, on a harrowing journey that will test their loyalties and change their lives forever. As their lifelong friendship is put to the ultimate test, both men must deal with honor and loyalty in the face of adversity.

"Fresh, authentic, brutally uncompromising yet not sensationalized! A vivid, intricately layered script!"
- Time Magazine 

by Mary Damiano

FLORIDA THEATER ON STAGE

March 6, 2012

 

The bond between two friends is tested by their own morality and betrayal in A Steady Rain by Keith Huff, now making in southeastern premiere at GableStage in Coral Gables.

Set on the mean streets of Chicago in what the program describes as the not too distant past, Denny (Gregg Weiner) and Joey (Todd Allen Durkin) navigate the complicated relationship they’ve had since childhood. Now partners on the Chicago police force, they always have each other’s back, even when faced with the Shakespearean circumstances that have invaded their everyday lives.

Moral ambiguity rules Denny’s life. Although he is a family man devoted to his wife and two sons, he has a mistress who is also a hooker. And while Denny sees himself as a hero fighting to make his city safe from the bad guys, he’s not above shaking down and beating up pimps, making money on the side from confiscated drugs, or planting a gun on an unarmed victim to rationalize shooting him.

Joey faces his own skewed morality. He battles the bottle, mainly because of his guilt over being in love with Denny’s wife. And he aids Denny in his wrongdoings, by either looking the other way or actively assisting.

A Steady Rain is a character study of these two men and their relationship. This is the kind of play director Joe Adler loves, one that will drag its audience through the muck and leave them breathless on the other side. The plot, which includes a real-life incident involving cannibalistic serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, is conveyed through monologues, with an occasional flashback of conversation between them. The structure is monotonous at times — after all, the first rule of writing is show, don’t tell — and nearly an hour into this 90 minute play one might wonder what it’s about or where it’s going. But here, to disagree with Shakespeare, the play is not the thing. The acting is.

Weiner and Durkin are brilliant actors — South Florida is lucky to have them — and here in Huff’s two-hander, their brilliance is laid bare for the audience to see.  ...