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Our Teen Ensemble has the opportunity to see and review each production in our 2015/16 season.  Here are their thoughts on our current production, A Steady Rain.

 

A Steady Rain is a captivating show. The simple setting and the music behind the storytelling created a perfect feel for the audience and I felt like I belonged in the show. The actors were nothing but outstanding and their performance made me very emotional! All I can say is Bravo!!

 

A Steady Rain was a great display of technical aspects in acting. It reminded me of how important an inner monologue is. Body language telling a story was professed eloquently in this play and I thought it was very informative about what’s going on in the real world. I also really enjoyed the technical elements of the show! The sound did a lot to move the story forward. If one of the characters said gunshot, you heard one in the next second and that was great. The set was simple yet purposeful. It didn’t need a grand stage to get the message across. Overall, the play was very well done and I think cast and crew & creative team deserve every inch of gratitude.

 

A Steady Rain, written by Keith Huff, perhaps best known for his work on Mad Men, is directed by Jeff Perry, of Scandal and a co-founder of Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Perry captains the ship, on board of which are his two person cast. Perhaps instead of imagining a ship, try thinking of a life raft.  A life raft in a hurricane. This image resembles much more closely the emotional intensity that A Steady Rain’s cast brings to the stage. 

 

The play stars Thomas Vincent Kelly and Sal Viscuso, who play Joey and Denny, two Chicago beat cops struggling with their own morality as they navigate a series of violent and racially charged events. The buddy cop duo is a relationship audience members are familiar with, but to see this stereotypical male bond tested in ways that feel both thought-provokingly philosophical and boldly personal is different than any other cop story currently in the media. The actors had a solid chemistry that never wavered throughout the show, and I was grateful as an audience member to be invited into the intimacy of their relationship. Many things about A Steady Rain felt intimate, from the poignantly bare stage to the conversational storytelling the characters employ. 

 

After the show, I got a chance to speak to Jeff Perry, who shared with me a note the playwright had written him. In it, Huff refers to the title of the play, “The steady rain that the title evokes is the downpour of events that challenge values, rupture the boundaries of loyalty and devotion, and compel the pursuit of shelter.  The nature of that shelter, to whom it is available, and what are the circumstances of its acquisition are some of the questions that drive the play.  Precipitation involves more than the condensation of vapor, of course.  It is also a word that refers to the process of causation, of bringing something about, and here, the steady rain is not only a downpour of words, but also a downpour of decisions.”

 

A Steady Rain asks the audience members some very important questions about what it means to put power and trust in the hands of an individual, and just how much one person can withstand. Especially considering the current political climate, this is a necessary and refreshing piece of theatre. Make sure to bring your umbrella and go see A Steady Rain before it closes on October 11th. 

 

Before attending a preview of A Steady Rain, the idea of a two person show entirely narrated in the past tense seemed like a lulling drag. However, this production manages to use minimalism to create a dramatic and investing environment. 

 

The structure of the play itself seems simple from afar- Two characters, past tense, no dialogue. Effective acting choices and variation in address of these monologues adds layers of meaning and retains interest and investment. While the dramatic plot might seem to be contrived at times, the honesty in which the actors unravel the plot for the audience allows for the shocking plot to penetrate the audience in a genuine manner. These actors were presented with a major challenge of a two person show comprised of monologue after monologue, yet they remained entirely engaged with their character and the other person onstage. Authentic chemistry and dialects also boost the actors’ performances.

 

The set design also took advantage of the theatrical advantages of minimalism. The varying ways in which two rolling office chairs were used allowed the audience to travel with the actors through time as they revisited and recounted their past. A single window frame became significantly symbolic; the blocking can be interpreted on a deeper level when examined in juxtaposition with the window frame. The sides in which characters stood on the frame, whether they looked through it or not, and the separation of the characters by the window frame all inject clues regarding their relationship at each point in the play. Images were orchestrated by more elements other than the window frame alone. A series of projection screens displayed differing photographs for each scene. The simplicity of this design and artistic choice of photographs have plagued images into my memory in association of certain scenes and characters. I can still see the flashed, raw mug shot of a Vietnamese man with dead eyes, and it sends chill down my spine. These simplistic visual elements elevate impact as they engage the senses of the audience at a heightened level. 

 

What I find to be the most delightful part of the entire design of this production is its beautiful irony. While certain elements of set, costuming, sound, and lighting may appear clear and uncomplicated, the characters and plot is anything but clear and uncomplicated. The intricate foreshadowing and building of suspense demand that the audience keeps up with the plot by planting seeds of curiosity. The play spins around the axis of these two characters’ relationship, which is also complex and anything but simplistic. The concise production elements allow for the audience to focus on the evolving stew of coexisting accord and discord between these two men. At least, that is the opinion during the meat of the play, yet even their relationship can be seen through a simplistic lens. The last line of the entire show expresses complete empathy between these two characters after the climax of their dissonance, for the roles were reversed. The detailed account of a man’s struggle with anger and pride are finally established as an obstacle of the human condition; the definitiveness in which this major theme develops is echoed by the production design. The oblivion of irony at the last possible instant is similar to human understanding of the world. 

 

Overall, this play can affect all people at all levels of theatrical experience. The entertaining plot engages all members, and the design and performance hold great artistic choices that lend themselves to analysis. 

 

A Steady Rain was a piece that had you glued to your chair. The actors had a way of tying you to the story and making you feel as if you could see everything from their point of view. When I heard about the play I thought it would be about two cops in trouble. What I didn’t expect was a story about two people so painfully human, caught up in things they can’t control. A Steady Rain leaves you with a message that brings tears to your eyes.

 

A Steady Rain is by far one of the greatest plays about police brutality I have seen. It gives an excellent overview of how people can change based on their surroundings. Despite its slightly abstract opening, the play was by far amazing. The actors are also a huge plus. The gentlemen brought life to the characters in a way that was unimaginable.