Playwright: Eric Simon. At: Babes With Blades Theatre Company at Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark St. Tickets: 773-904-0391; www.babeswithblades.org; $20. Runs through: Sept. 21
Alhough their seasons may vary in tone and theme, certain Chicago theaters have come to be associated with specific types of plays. Theatergoers know to expect shivery horror tales from WildClaw Productions, futuristic fantasy-epics from House Theatre, and slapstick spoofs from the Factory folks. Ooooh, but for Amazon Brigade action-adventure, you can't do better than the Babes With Blades, who, for nearly two decades, have forged a reputation for female-focused martial spectacle drawn from such diverse sources as Victorian whodunits and interactive video-games.
The prototypes for this latest romp lie in the pulp fiction novels of the 1930san era of hard-boiled gumshoes, patrician vamps, exotic assassins and crooked power-brokers. True to form, Eric Simon's homage comes equipped with an icy millionaress puffing at a self-igniting cigarette, a she-thug in full Natasha Fatale drag, and a ruthless mob boss disguised as the proverbial pillar of the community. Lending a gender-flip to the genre is our heroine, freelance detective Bo Thomas, who relishes missions of danger and daring, while posingfor business reasonsas the humble secretary of her male assistant, the fussy and fretful Sam Lowell.
Such a provocative collection of goodies and baddies could have engendered an enjoyably noiresque yarn replete with frozen-lipped repartee swapped in gloomy alleys and shadowed hallwaysif only Simon had resisted the temptation to make his villains' chosen mode of transport, not seagoing frigates, but zeppelins! Granted, gas-filled dirigibles explain the preference of the "pirates" for daggers over incendiary weaponse.g. gunsfor their human-trafficking operations, but they also mandate scenes involving airship-to-airship transfers, ascents on rope ladders (in high-heeled pumps, yet!), parachute jumps and other thrilling stunts that, in the classroom-sized quarters of Raven's West stage, can only be suggested by likewise restricted glimpses through a single window.
Well, aren't comic-book stories also narrated within the confines of frames? Under Leigh Barrett's direction, the five-member cast embraces its venerable archetypes with unwavering concentration and gusto, while guest fight designers Kim Fukawa and Jay Burckhardt of JK Choreography contribute a more vigorously intense brand of violence than BWB's usual PG-rated athletics. The technical team invokes their period in meticulous detail, needing only a little audience imaginationan element unaffected by budgetary limitationsto endow this retro shilling-shocker with as much excitement and intrigue as any CGI-choked Hollywood blockbuster