A Shot in the Dark

Six Corners – American Blues Theatre

 

On a bitterly cold December night, a tragic, real-life event occurred that inspired this play. Playwright Keith Huff heard a gunshot fired in the dark at the Western Avenue Brown Line L stop. The victim, who happened to be a CTA employee, fell onto the tracks, just as a train was approaching. Without thinking, Huff leaped onto the tracks and tried to move the man to the safety of the platform. Spotting the only other witness to this incident, a single woman who was just standing there watching, Huff shouted at her asking for some help. Together they both managed to lift the man off the tracks and onto the platform and the warming bench.

The CTA worker had been shot in the head; he unfortunately died in Huff’s arms, while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Both Keith Huff and the woman (whose name he never learned) were taken to the police station and questioned separately. They were eventually released when their stories apparently meshed. That experience, however, never left Keith Huff and it inspired his new play, now having its world premiere in Chicago.

This drama is the third installment of Keith Huff’s Chicago Cop Trilogy. Although the series don’t share any characters, all three plays are about bluecoat buddies/partners, real-life murder mysteries and the typical kinds of police procedures that follow such incidents. The trilogy began with Huff’s world-famous two-hander, “A Steady Rain,” first staged by Chicago Dramatists in 2007, and then went on to play Broadway two years later. That critically acclaimed production starred Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman. The second part of the trilogy is the one-character drama, “The Detective’s Wife,” which opened at Glencoe’s Writers Theater. It starred the incomparable Barbara Robertson. This play, Huff’s final chapter, features a cast of six and is inspired by the playwright’s own experience.

The drama is filled with references to many actual Chicago locations. Its title refers to the intersection of three main thoroughfares, where a previous heinous crime is thought to have taken place. It’s at one of several bus stops located in the Portage Park neighborhood where W Irving Park Rd., N Cicero Ave and N Milwaukee Ave converge. Huff’s play alternates between this location and the Chicago Police Station near Western Ave and W Belmont.

Keith Huff’s latest drama focuses primarily on the professional and personal connection between Chicago Police Department partners, Detective Nick Moroni and Detective Bernadette Perez. The play opens in their tiny, shared office wherein the audience learns a great deal about these two in a short amount of time. They appear to have a strained love/hate relationship that’s about to be tested even further through the evening’s events.

Two other individuals are seated on a holding room bench.  African-American Carter Hutch and a young, white woman named Amanda Brackett seem to have something in common, but we won’t know what that is until later in the play. There’s a special tension between them and eventually the audience learns why. Then, in a series of flashbacks, theatergoers meet little Katie Yates. The child sits alone at a bus stop in the cold night air, trying to be brave, despite not knowing the whereabouts of her parents. Soon a middle-aged guy named BJ Lyles limps into the bus shelter. Despite having been warned not to talk to strangers, Katie finds comfort in this man, the only adult willing to help her. It’s these moments that set the 90-minute play into motion.

Huff’s tense story is sometimes difficult to watch. In addition to being a taut murder mystery and an observant character study of six very different individuals, his play deals with how the police frequently trample on the civil rights of its citizens. It examines how racial profiling has destroyed public trust, particularly in minority neighborhoods. The drama delves into the plight of the female worker and how she’s often given less authority, credence and pay than her male counterpart; and it also looks at the controversial practice of diversity hiring. This one-act, filled with a myriad of controversial ideas, intersects three separate storylines in one anxiety-ridden drama that has the audience on pins and needles throughout.

The cast is superb under master director Gary Griffin’s astute direction. It’s led by Monica Orozco, as a smart, sharp-tongued Bernadette Perez, and Peter Defaria as a wisecracking Nick Moroni. Both of these actors hold this play in the palm of their hands, sparring, joking and battering each other for their mistakes and weaknesses. Defaria also starred in Huff’s earlier police drama at Chicago Dramatists, “A Steady Rain.”

Manny Buckley is articulate and controlled as Carter Hutch, a man who knows he’s walking on thin ice around these career cops, but has his own leverage when it comes to negotiating his fate. Brenda Barrie, so excellent in the House Theatre’s Award-winning “United Flight 232,” among many other stellar performances, is mesmerizing as Amanda Brackett. She and Buckley work well together and are both totally believable in their roles.

The multitalented Byron Glenn Willis returns to American Blues Theater, after appearing in “Hank Williams: Lost Highway.” Here he creates an earnest, yet sadly sympathetic character in homeless BJ Lyles. Willis’ onstage relationship with third-grade actress, Lyric Sims, as little Katie Yates, is touching and sincere. Miss Sims demonstrates a strong command of her character, while delivering her dialogue with clarity and honesty. Both actors develop a chemistry between them that’s often missing in more seasoned performers.

Keith Huff’s third installment of his Chicago Cop Trilogy is staggering and unforgettable. Audiences do not have to experience the first two plays in order to become totally caught up in this riveting drama. Each play is a self-contained story about very different characters, with only the CPD as their point of union. Gary Griffin again demonstrates why he’s one of Chicago’s finest directors, guiding his actors toward realistic performances that are difficult to erase from memory. Staged on Joe Schermoly’s detailed, adaptable scenic design, lit with clarity by Alexander Ridgers, with original music and sound design created by Lindsay Jones and well-chosen, realistic costumes by Janice Pytel, this production will inspire conversations about many important issues. Audiences will find themselves discussing the integrity of our cities’ police force, the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement, the stature of female employees and the rationale behind diversity hiring. But, most importantly, theatergoers will come to understand how solving real murder mysteries rely heavily upon the sharing of facts and the telling of stories.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

 

Presented February 16-March 24 by American Blues Theater at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago.

Tickets are available in person at the box office, by calling 773-327-5252 or by going to www.AmericanBluesTheater.com.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.