Cops have their inner demons, as television shows such as “Hill Street Blues” and “The Shield” have demonstrated for years. But the detectives in Sharon Evans’ new play for Live Bait Theater, “Escape,” have the actual Furies on their case. A trio of vengeful weird sisters straight out of Greek mythology hangs around the edges of the shabby station house, taunting and teasing the troubled officers.
The risible device pretty much destroys what would otherwise be a straightforward but occasionally intriguing cop-shop drama. Evans knows the world of law enforcement well. Live Bait staged Loyola University Chicago professor Connie Fletcher’s anecdotal book “What Cops Know” back in 1993, and the company has won accolades for its Police Teen Link Program, which brings together officers of the law and at-risk teenagers for theater games and community building. So it’s rather mystifying that she would step back from her inside knowledge about the lives and frustrations of ordinary cops in order to work in generic diatribes on fear and fate from the Furies. Some of their speeches sound like they’d be more at home on late-night infomercials. “How good is your firewall? Can it hold back the flames?” they solemnly ask one officer.
Jim (Gerrit O’Neil) and Terri (Heather Ireland) are detectives and partners in the special victims unit who have each found separate ways of dealing — or not dealing — with the stresses of the job. Divorced Jim has become a one-man party planner for the department, while Terri works out her frustrations in weekly tango classes. Tensions escalate when Jim’s former partner, Nora (Lori Myers), is reassigned to administrative duty in their office after shooting an innocent bystander. What apparently unleashes the Furies on Jim is his dismissive attitude toward a black woman who claims to have been raped after consensual sex in a crack house. This contrasts with his over-solicitous handling of another rape victim — a pretty blond white woman — later on.
Evans has thrown together a stew of sexual tensions and gender and racial differences here. Jim, who is white, clashes frequently with his black female commanding officer, and his past relationship with Nora, whose father is a captain on the force, is also difficult. But just when we start learning more about these flawed but potentially fascinating characters, in come the Furies, clad in Frances Maggio’s deconstructed goth ballgowns that look like Vivienne Westwood rejects circa 1996, babbling nonsensical portents and generally stopping the action in Peter Amster’s staging cold. Now that’s infuriating.
Through July 1 at Live Bait Theater, 3914 N. Clark St. Tickets are $15-$20 at 773-871-1212.
Sideway Theater claims to be the first “NY-Chicago theater company.” But if that’s true, they sure didn’t bring their “A” game to town for their current offering. Matt Doherty’s “Mr. Baseball” is an unenlightened blend of sports cliches about an aging ballplayer in the 1950s, Frank Little (Danny Ahlfeld). Beset by the trifecta of declining-titan problems — booze, bad knees, and impending divorce — Little tries to take fleeting solace with Sandy, a female factory worker (sensitively played by Danielle Fink). But since Doherty never shows us a reason to care about the brutish and self-pitying Little, and the supporting characters are little more than archetypes, Michael Stock’s production can’t rise above the script’s limitations, and at two and a half hours, it definitely feels like we’ve headed into extra innings.
Through May 27 at Aguijon Theater, 2707 N. Laramie St. Tickets are $14.99-$19.99 at sidewaytheater@mac.com.
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