Pictured: Detective Story.
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Playwright: Sidney Kingsley
At: Straw Dog Theatre, 3829 N. Broadway
Phone: (773) 528-9696; $18
Runs through: Dec. 20
In the first show of their 16th season, Strawdog Theatre Company has elected to take on a play first produced on Broadway in 1949. The good news is that Detective Story is a classic, standing up just fine after being around for more than 50 years. Even better news is that this well-crafted, highly engaging piece of entertainment is powerfully executed here under the confident hand of Shade Murray, who moves his cast of 30 around a flawless period set (by Ray Vleck) with all the strategy and skill of a master chessman. Strawdog's Detective Story is a triumph, one of the finest works I've seen come out of this company since its production of HurlyBurly in 1999.
Detective Story concerns one hot August night in New York City's 21st precinct. It's a powder keg waiting to explode, with a volatile mix of detectives, uniformed cops, petty criminals, big-time burglars, bumbling sidekicks, a desperate young man who has violated his own moral code, a news photographer, a barking chief, and last, and most importantly, people with secrets. Detective Story is a precursor to shows like NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues, with overlapping dialogue, fast-paced and often colliding storylines, and a real penchant for unearthing the humanity under its large cast of characters. At the play's center is McLeod (Tom Hickey), a hot-tempered detective whose fatal flaw is he is unable to see the world in anything other than black and white terms. McLeod is hot on the trail of an abortionist and, as the play progresses, we wonder if there may be a connection between the abortionist and McLeod's beloved wife Mary (Loretta Rezos, in a skilled performance just this side of Donna Reed, but with a lot more humanity and courage). Other story lines which playwright Kingsley masterfully juggles include a novice shoplifter (the always spot-on Jennifer Avery, dowdy, mousy, and very funny here), two not so bright burglars (Kyle Hamman and Richard Cotovsky, who creates one of the finest performances in the piece—evil, wheedling, and potentially very dangerous, Cotovsky creates a wholly compelling and wholly detestable scum of the earth), a young man (James Elly), a good boy gone bad for the love of a woman, and the ambitions and beefs of other precinct personnel and their hangers on, which include a newspaper photographer (Anderson Lawfer) a bit of a law-enforcement sycophant, but wise beyond his years.
Turn off the TV and its spate of 'real-life' cop shows and come out and see Detective Story. It's the real deal.