A Steady Rain

A Steady Rain
Poster for the Broadway production
Written by	Keith Huff
Date premiered	2007
Place premiered	Chicago Dramatists
Original language	English
Subject	Two policemen must deal with the circumstances arising from a deadly error in judgment
Genre	Drama

A Steady Rain is a play by Keith Huff. With a plot similar to a real-life event involving Jeffrey Dahmer, it focuses on two Chicago policemen who inadvertently return a Vietnamese boy to a cannibalistic serial killer who claims to be the child's uncle. When he later becomes the man's latest victim, the lifelong friendship of the two men is threatened when it becomes clear someone must bear responsibility for their egregious failure to assess the situation accurately. The play alternates between two separate monologues and present-moment dialogue scenes.

Following readings in New York City and Los Angeles, A Steady Rain was staged by Chicago Dramatists in 2007. It opened on Broadway in September 2009.

Productions

A Steady Rain initially was produced by Chicago Dramatists in 2007 and then at the Royal George Theatre in Chicago in February 2008. It won the Joseph Jefferson Awards for Best New Work and Best Production.

Following a number of staged and table readings and an off-Broadway workshop production, the play began previews at the Schoenfeld Theatre on September 10, 2009. It is scheduled to open officially on September 29. The 12-week engagement is scheduled to close on December 6. Directed by John Crowley, it stars Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, making his Broadway debut. Set and costume design is by Scott Pask, with lighting design by Hugh Vanstone.

Critical reception

In reviewing the original Chicago Dramatists production, Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune called the play "a gritty, rich, thick, poetic and entirely gripping noir tale."

Hedy Weiss of the Chicago Sun-Times stated, "Huff provides [the actors] with enough fiery, superbly rendered, often deeply poetic speeches, enough mood shifts, enough emotional cataclysms and action-packed storytelling to keep this hallucinatory roller-coaster ride in motion. I would be happy to see this production again with an audience of real men in blue, just to take the temperature in the room."

Steve Oxman of Variety observed, "Keith Huff's crackerjack two-hander . . . turns out to be less like the perpetual drizzle of its title and more like a snowball that builds to an avalanche. While Huff starts with a couple of familiar characters - good-cop, bad-cop Chicago patrolmen with alcohol and racism issues - he deepens them into complex figures, compellingly human even when at their most despicable. The adroit character development combines with a billowing narrative to deliver some rattling emotional crescendos . . . While he could maybe pull back on a contrivance or two, the playwright smartly sticks to his conceit of piling one worse complication on top of another, effectively investing A Steady Rain with genuine dramatic power and a sense of true tragedy."

Mobile phone ringing incident

Both Jackman and Craig remained in character while breaking the fourth wall when an audience member's mobile phone rang during a preview performance of the play. The incident was filmed secretly and posted on TMZ and YouTube. During the interruption, Jackman is seen telling the audience member, "We can wait," and "Don't be embarrassed - just grab it."

External links

• Official website