Lightening Strikes Twice For ‘A Steady Rain'

Partnership, loyalty; family, love, drug abuse, cannibalism, murder and suicide. These are just a few of the plot points covered in Keith Huff's knock out police drama ‘A Steady Rain', which is one of the best new works to be presented in Chicago or any other city for that matter.

Buoyed by a sold out run six week run at the Chicago Dramatists last fall, legendary Broadway and London producer Frank Gero received the script for A Steady Rain after the play closed last October. Gero instantly realized the brilliance of it and has now remounted it, along with producing partners Raymond Gaspard and Gero's son, Jono. The original production is in tact, with the original director and two person cast in place for an open ended run now at the Royal George Theatre.

This piece of art will forever change your perception of the officers who pledge their lives to ‘serve and protect' the public. This is a psycho-drama to the highest degree where at the end of the play, grown men are weeping in their seats. Ultimately, Huff's work, which follows the life of two Chicago police officers who were childhood friends and who are now partners on the force, have to deal with the choices each makes in their individual lives and how that impacts their job, family and friendship. It is a mirror into our prejudicial society as a whole and will give you a heightened insight on how and why certain public views of the police exist. Moreover, it will give the public an idea of how and why certain police officers react to the public they are employed to protect.

You will leave the theatre asking yourself at what lengths would you go through to support your family and the morality choices of right and wrong that face us everyday. What looks black and white on the outside can many times be the opposite with just a little more understanding and investigation.

This is a true actors piece. Peter Defaria (Joey) and Randy Steinmeyer (Denny) are each worthy of the Jeff Award for Best Actor. Together as actors on stage, they have such a natural chemistry that you are transported instantly into their gritty emotional underworld. Just as the characters they are playing, each of these actors have each others back. You can see by the end of Huff's play, these two phenomenal actors are physically and emotional exhausted. They give their all and the reward to the audience is spectacular. Director Russ Tutterow moves the action along with great ease and knows how to get the right emotion out of each of the performers, even in the most subdued of scenes.

Not only should every member of the public see this piece, but so should every police officer, their families, criminal justice and law students, district attorneys and public defenders, judges and politician.

A Steady Rain is playing at the Royal George Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted, Chicago, Illinois. For showtimes and ticket information, please visit www.theroyalgeorgetheatre.com

Next week I will be posting a companion piece podcast with A Steady Rain producuer, Frank Gero.

Pictured: Randy Steinmeyer on the left and Peter DeFaria on right