The Rant by Andrew Case
Directed by Sharon Evans (Live Bait Artistic Director) and features Emanueal Buckley, Earl Pastko, Lindsey Pearlman, and Shariba Rivers.
Designers include Heath Hays (set), Stefin Steberl (costumes), Matthew Gawryk (lights), Joe Court (sound), CoCo Ree Lemery (paint charge). Stage Management by Anna MK Brenner. About:
THE RANT by Andrew Case
A MIDWEST PREMIERE
THE RANT is a gripping drama exploring racial bias and the perilous path to justice. When an African-American autistic boy is fatally shot by a police officer in Brooklyn, an investigator sets out to expose the officer's crime only to learn that the truth itself is a sort of bias. She must wade through prejudice, deceit, and a volley of anonymous threats to find where culpability and truth really lie.
THE RANT is based on Andrew Case's eight years of experience working on police misconduct issues for the City of New York. He served as the chief spokesman and policy officer for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which investigates over 5,000 complaints every year against NYPD officers.
PRESS SNIPPETS:
"Evans's pointed staging and the heartfelt performances (particularly Shariba Rivers's as the grieving mother) offer a peek into a world where calcified personal convictions trump ethics." -Chicago Reader
"Directed by Sharon Evans, The Rant is everything you'd expect from a piece defined by the daily, devastating ambiguities of crime. Mary Arrchie's production is gritty in its uncompromising realism and provocative in its exposure of the the unending, slippery grayness of a criminal justice system we'd all prefer to think of in terms of stark, easily grasped segments of good and bad, black and white." -Windy City Times
"The Rant is both a mystery and a cautionary tale about the relativity of the truth in emotionally charged racial incidents concerning the police. This is a thought provoking show that will get you debating the facts presented since playwright Case leaves doubt. Emanueal Buckley as Officer Simmons was particularly effective in a cast of outstanding character actors. The Rant is weighty and an honest commentary on the contemporary society’s state of racial relations."
Recommended - ChicagoCritic.com
