A Steady Rain

Alliance Theatre

through October 11, 2015

A Steady Rain by Keith Huff premiered in 2007 in Chicago, and also had a very successful run in New York. The time frame is not specific, but it is a snapshot of real things in real time in a real place; albeit is performed by a cast of only two on a very stark setting on the Hertz Stage.

Cities such as Chicago, Boston, New York and others had a long history of discrimination among the civil servants and the general population. For in the first half of the last century these jobs were often the profession of choice for first generation citizens.

This production is directed by Jeff Perry, who also directed the same two actors in Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Thomas Vincent Kelly is Joey, a single cop who works a beat in some tough neighborhoods. Like the matron in the musical Chicago; Joey believes that when you’re good to him, he’ll be good to you. Well, there’s nothing new in that thought; as what goes around comes around. He requires the indulgences of hookers, pimps, druggies and barkeeps, and has his own problems with the devil in a bottle.

His best friend since school days is a fellow cop named Denny, played by Sal Viscuso. Denny is a little more straight up than Joey, is married and has a couple of children and lives in a house as opposed to a rat cellar like Joey. These are two guys who cover each other’s back at all times. Or, do they?

The only props are chairs for cops and screens that change with projected images all designed by Adam Dean Flemming, who also came to town to reprise work on this project. While I am one of those patrons who usually prefers large casts, and splendid costumes, sets and props, I have to tell you that these two guys put on one heck of a great show. It is basically two interwoven monologues, and when you think that most of us can’t remember our passwords to some accounts; it’s amazing when you think how they can remember every word of a 90 minute show which, except for the abundance of expletives, could have been a spin off of one of those TV cop series.

The “rain” may be the actual precipitation, or a rain of aggravations, depression, and fears. The point is that it really does draw you in, and may not resolve the final issue quite as you may have expected. But, certainly worth seeing and there are no commercials in this episode.

For times and tickets visit them at AllianceTheatre.org