Flatfooted

Aces and Eights – BYOT Productions

Aces and Eights, a film noir farce, started its life in 2015 as a ten minute scene for one of Bring Your Own Theater’s 24-hour theater festivals and over the years, it has been worked into a full length show. Focusing on Francine Noir, Frank to most people, she must find a missing will and a stolen painting, all while trying to stay above the corruption that pervades her city and her nascent alcoholism. It’s a fun set-up. Unfortunately, I don’t think it quite sticks the landing.

My biggest issue is that the rules of the universe are not clearly enough laid out. For example, everyone is acting and dressing like it’s 1940, but people apparently have cellphones. That’s not a problem in and of itself, but it does raise the question of how aware of the farce the characters are. Movies like Airplane, the Naked Gun series, or, more comparable here, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, work because despite the (literal) cartoonish nature of the world, the characters all took it deadly seriously. They weren’t in on the joke, and that’s why it was funny. It felt like most of the character were aware they were in a farce, and that’s kind of the death of farce. Compounding the problem is a whole song in the second act, straight out of the musical theater playbook. You can’t only-kind-of be a musical, and it creates the same problem of how aware to make the characters. Breaking into song isn’t weird if everyone breaks into song and the characters don’t acknowledge that it’s weird. Having only one song just makes it feel out of place.

That all said, the cast has charm to spare, particularly from Noah Berman, Frank’s assistant and perpetually overlooked sidekick. He commits whole-heartedly to the take on the ‘gal Friday’ and the show is closest to consistently working when he is on stage. As much as I found the existence of a song a needle scratch in the show, the song he got was pretty good and he definitely sold it. Shana Laski as hard drinking Frank is also having a good time, and has some fun with the omnipresent narration that all noir gumshoes engage in, but I can’t help but think she would have done more with a better defined setup.

I know I’ve gone in on my problems with the show, but I’m not trying to be harsh. I love that Chicago theater nurtures works big and small, and I know how much energy goes into getting ten minutes on stage, let alone ninety. The cast and creators of the show should definitely be commended for their heart and their enthusiasm, but judging the show for itself, it doesn’t quite get to the taut, manic energy a farce needs to thrive.

Somewhat Recommended

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Presented through September 15th by BYOT Productions at City Lit Theatre, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, Chicago.

Tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets or at the door.

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