"NEVER THE SINNER," Shining Through Productions at Heartland Studio Theatre
BY LUCIA MAURO
More than a didactic courtroom docudrama, John Logan’s "Never the Sinner" – despite the Chicago-born playwright’s meticulous research – also crawls into the brilliant but convoluted minds of its lead characters to explore their obsessive love pact. But the play is not so much a love story as a glimpse into the power one individual can have over another, coupled with two men exhibiting psychopathic tendencies exacerbated by money and boredom.
"Never the Sinner" – now in a crushingly intimate staging by Shining Through Productions at the Heartland Studio Theatre – alternates between the infamous Leopold-Loeb trial and the two men’s destructive bond.
In 1924, these two wealthy young Chicagoans – the brainy and insecure Nathan Leopold, Jr. and the slick and handsome Richard Loeb – transformed themselves into "birds of prey" and stalked various young men from their circle before setting their sights on 14-year-old Bobby Franks. Believing they could commit the perfect crime – often and dubiously attributed to their being "high" on Nietzsche’s notion of evolutionarily supreme super men – they lured Franks into their car, where Loeb claimed to have bludgeoned him with a chisel.
Their confounded alibis and stupid blunders (like Leopold accidentally dropping his glasses near the boy’s semi-buried body) quickly got the best of them. But, even during their legendary trial for "the Crime of the Century," they mesmerized and horrified the public. Loeb, in particular, seemed to be capable of seducing women from afar. Yet individuals could not help being outraged by the killers’ cavalier smirks and cold justifications that they were merely conducting a philosophical exercise.
The case is also groundbreaking for Clarence Darrow’s defense in which he argued against the death penalty and won, so to speak, with Leopold and Loeb being sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutor Richard Crowe fought equally fervently for the death penalty. That still-burning issue, in my opinion, forms the heart of this play.
However, Logan’s subtle examination of less tangible issues – like blind ambition and deadly self-gratification – swirl around the theater like the chronic drone of a ceiling fan. The defendants, who were allegedly involved in a twisted criminal-acts-for-sexual-acts trade off, also sought the limelight. Although Leopold and Loeb’s methods for fame were extreme, one can argue that Richard Crowe and Clarence Darrow were slaves to ambition on another level. And, regardless of the brutal nature of the play, Logan reminds us of the romantic appeal of sensational trials – an insatiable rubbernecking in the mahogany-lined halls of "justice."
Director Michael Ryczek – who impressively landed the rights to a play Logan (also a well-known screenwriter) had previously granted only to Goodman and Victory Gardens theaters – places the audience so close to the action, they may think they must take the witness stand. His choice of the appropriately cramped and – on the night I attended – stiflingly hot Heartland Studio truly makes viewers feel like they are at the notoriously steamy 1924 trial, where the mercury topped 100. Ryczek also graciously segues from nuts-and-bolts trial to the world of Leopold and Loeb’s misguided imaginations.
However – and opening-night jitters may have been the cause – the cast as a whole has not yet found its synergy. A few tentative performances undercut the more polished ones. For instance, the ill-at-ease Carl Occhipinti falls woefully short of master orator Darrow’s fiery – albeit rumpled – resolve. He gets incongruously overpowered by Keith Eric Davis’ icily committed and precise Richard Crowe (although Davis still can delve deeper into the prosecutor’s complex motivations).
Michael J. Freymann fares best in his eerily smug, boyish, attractive and devastatingly delusional portrayal of Loeb. His softly charismatic performance makes one understand the allure of this sexy millionaire killer. Joseph McCauley’s more understated and clinical approach to Leopold serves as a brilliant-monster of a counterpoint to Freymann’s swaggering, visceral Loeb.
The trio of reporters who take on multiple roles – played by Larry Carani, Lynette Kucharski and Jarrett Gable – need more time to smoothly move the artfully compressed action forward. Right now, their performances feel labored and under-rehearsed.
Scenic designer Robert Carder’s "newspaper" light fixtures and newsprint-heavy set in general recall the pivotal role media coverage played in this trial. But the blood-splattered walls unnecessarily overstate both the men’s gruesome deed and the blood-like pact they forged with their fiendishly obsessive selves.•
Shining Through Productions’ staging of "Never the Sinner" runs through September 29 at the Heartland Studio Theatre, 7016 N. Glenwood. Tickets: $15. Call 773-743-3591.
