Dark Rapture

Earlier this week I went to see Eric Overmyer's Dark Rapture at The Connelly Theater. Overmyer is best known for as a writer for television; he has worked on Law and Order, The Wire, and others. I was interested to see what kind of approach a person who is so used to the world of TV would take towards screen writing.

Dark Rapture is a noir crime drama about a woman who was intended to launder money for the mafia, and ended up being suspected of trying to rip them off. It is suspenseful, violent, profane and witty journey across America involving identity change, organized crime, and nationalist militarism.

The plot, while not terribly original for its genre, seems slightly out of its element on stage, and is somewhat more reminiscent it its pacing to a show or a film. It is essentialy a convoluted memory game interspersed with sudden scenes of violence or sex. The script however, is quite sharp and full of distinct characters concepts and lines. These are its saving grace, is the low budget of the production and some patchy acting left me losing my focus. Some actors flubbed lines, others simply didn't seem to be particularly inspired. The chemistry between the faithful spouses and adulterers, Armenian militants and Turkish citizens,"debt collectors" and those in debt was disappointingly weak. It also didn't help that most of the actors played multiple roles with little distinction made between them.

So all in all, it had good dialogue, perhaps a little ambitious for the stage, and definitely too ambitious for a low-budget production.