Review: A STEADY RAIN, Arcola Theatre, February 17 2016

Denny is angry about being passed over for promotion to plain clothes, about how his life is working out to be so dull and, especially, about the pimp who shot through his front room window and injured his toddler son. His buddy from schooldays and long-time patrol partner, Joey, isn't so angry, but he's jealous - jealous of Denny's suburban home, of his picturebook family and, especially, of his realtor wife. There's been a few bumps along the way over the years, but things come to a head when the cops send a distressed Vietnamese kid back to his "uncle" and bad things happen that put their jobs, their very sense of self, on the line.

Keith Huff's two-hander is told in present-time narrative and flashback, which takes a little getting used to, but works well to tell the tale (though it does lead to more repetition than is strictly necessary). The problem is the material itself. It's a buddy story, a bromance (Starsky and Hutch gets a couple of mentions in case we hadn't cottoned on), a slice of life, a morality tale, a redemption saga and probably a few other things too. The trouble is that we've seen all that stuff before on the over-familiar mean streets of 21st-century North American cities. What's new about this show? is a question I asked myself a few times during the long periods of exposition.

There's some impressive work from the actors, given the not inconsiderable task of holding our attention for a couple of hours with two unappealing characters. Vincent Regan makes Denny a clenched fist of a man, his shoulders rolling with a boxer's gait, as he can barely contain the rage that bubbles up inside him. David Schaal gives Joey a calmer air, the beta male to Denny's alpha, his speeches more confessional than confrontational. he almost had my sympathy - but not quite.

The curious fact is that the most interesting character is the person we never see - Connie, Denny's wife. We hear a lot about her and I longed for a woman to step out and diffuse some of the testosterone that flooded Denny and Joey's conversations. Perhaps that's where the real drama lay, because A Steady Rain (at the Arcola Theatre until 5 March) felt a little too much like a wet weekend in downtown Chicago without her.

Photo Nick Rutter.