Sound of the Fury

The Rant

by Mark Cofta

Seth Rozin JUST THE FACTS, MA'AM: Charles (Aldo Billingslea) attacks Lila (Elena Araoz) on an anonymous police blog after Lila accuses Charles of bad post-9/11 policing. With everyone ranting, the truth is drowned out. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

To rant, Webster's says, is "to talk in a loud, wild, extravagant way, to declaim violently," which occurs often in Andrew Case's InterAct Theatre Co. première.

Listening to rants can be exhausting, and Case portrays a lot of ranting, all centered on a Rashomon-style dissection of a New York City police shooting. Three rants dominate: Denise (Kimberly Fairbanks) describes how a cop with "fat belly and pink nose" shot her angelic son; Lila (Elena Araoz) supports Denise and decries post-9/11 policing, linking random searches and shows of force with the shooting; and cop Charles (Aldo Billingslea) staunchly defends his accused partner and attacks Lila on an anonymous police blog, The Rant. All three attach their lifelong frustrations with prejudice to the case.

What Case and director Seth Rozin overlook is that such strident ranting soon becomes a noxious din that fails to convince those not already sympathetic — i.e., us. Case seems to want us to empathize with anger, no matter how twisted or misplaced. Those who enter believing all cops are Nazis, all whites are racist, and/or all minorities are pure of heart by virtue of pigment might cheer on the ranters, but we, listening for a point of view based on reason rather than rancor, soon tire.

David Ingram's sardonic reporter Alex provides relief, but no answers. While the truth is drowned out — all three ranters blatantly lie, we soon realize, to promote their agendas — Alex shrugs, "I no longer believe in facts." He gives the play's one clear-minded argument, amusingly analyzing the Kobe Bryant rape accusation (white victim, black perp) and the Duke lacrosse case (black victim, white perps) to prove that "no matter what you believe, you're apparently a bigot." His solution? Enjoy life's simple pleasures (he munches constantly) and score the next big scoop. His cynicism feels healthier than the other characters' blindly self-righteous fury, but he's just following bodies. If Case — a former investigator for the NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board, which probes allegations against police — wants to say that the pursuit of truth and justice is hopeless, well, he succeeds. How depressing.

While the presumed "facts" about the shooting eventually emerge, the theatrical experience rings hollow because the characters never grow, but merely become more entrenched in their views. "It was only a rant," Charles tells Lila. "No one's supposed to listen."

(m_cofta@citypaper.net)

The Rant | Through Feb. 22, InterAct Theatre Co., 2030 Sansom St., 215-568-8079, interacttheatre.org