A STEADY RAIN
A STEADY RAIN, produced by Justin Stewart Cotta and Nick Barkla in association with Red Line Productions, Old Fitz Theatre, 22 September-17 October 2015. Photography: Nick Barkla and Justin Stewart Cotta (above); right: Justin Stewart Cotta.
How unfortunate for Ben Brantley of The New York Times that he didn’t get to see this production of Keith Huff’s two-hander A Steady Rain in the 60-seat Old Fitz. If he had he would have seen a vividly written, enthralling 100 minutes of dramatic story-telling that keeps its audience totally rapt from start to finish – thanks to director Adam Cook and its stars Nick Barkla and Justin Stewart Cotta.
Perversely, however, back in 2009 Huff scored a major lottery win when first Daniel Craig then Hugh Jackman signed on to do the play on Broadway. Cash-wise Huff certainly hit the jackpot: the two stars filled a 1500-seat theatre for four months and the production made millions. There was a downside, of course.
The presence of the (miscast) superstars meant a review from Brantley that began: “Big names, little show…A Steady Rain, which opened on Tuesday night at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater, is probably best regarded as a small, wobbly pedestal on which two gods of the screen may stand in order to be worshiped.” Ouch. Mean.
No one, having seen the Sydney production, could possibly have dismissed the play so harshly, although as it sold out spectacularly, the playwright could have been happy to simply cry all the way to the bank. On the other hand, the play and its author deserve more than that.
Sitting on two plain office type chairs in a nowhere location, low-ranking Chicago cops, Joey (Nick Barkla) and Denny (Justin Stewart Cotta) start out to share with the audience the story of how their ordinary if necessarily dangerous lives begin to unravel.
It’s almost comfortable in its apparent mundanity: they have known each since kindergarten: partners, best buddies, the yin to the other’s yang – if they’d ever countenance such high falutin crap. Loyal to a fault and close as brothers, Joey is sensible, Denny is fiery and each takes a turn and turn about to inveigle sympathy or understanding from the audience.
Given that neither seems to be particularly sympathetically drawn, nor immediately appealing, it becomes clear way too late that the director has drawn in the audience by way of the juicy bait of an unlikely humanity and an even less likely sweetness. We swallow Joey and Denny hook, line and sinker because by the time we should be sitting back in easy judgement, we’re actually too complicit. Enthralling stuff.
Just over a year ago, Barkla and Cotta met in Melbourne where both were cast in Melbourne Theatre Company’s Glengarry Glen Ross. Barkla already wanted to do A Steady Rain and realised he’d found Denny – outwardly gentle and charismatic yet powerful and dangerous at the flick of an emotional switch. The perfect foil to Joey, whose own exterior and interior lives are the polar opposites of those physical and temperamental characteristics.
What happens – aside from the incessant rain – is a everyday story of city life on the wrong side of the tracks and the law of 21st century Chicago. It’s both shocking and predictable although guessing the outcome(s) is as tricky as crime solving in real life (ie – not easy and never predictable).
As well as the exceptional performances of Cotta and Barkla and Cook’s subtle yet muscular direction, there’s a simple, effective set of the two chairs, a water cooler and lighting that allows them to be on the street, in their patrol car, at home with Denny’s family and nowhere in particular (Ross Graham). And finally, an exceptional soundscape by Jed Silver that paints in the sounds, colours and smells of the city and its time – of day and era.
Another fine production from and at the Old Fitz – you’ve got another week to see it.
