Somebody forgot to tell writer/director Kasey Wilson that satires of 40s private-eye movies aren't exactly hot ideas today, although it's possible that a comic sketch along those lines might have seemed briefly fresh and funny. Wilson, though, opted to make a full evening out of her parodies of films like "The Big Sleep" and "The Maltese Falcon." Big mistake.
Composed of two long one-acts, Marked For Love and Of Dicks and Dames, Nights of Noir runs out of ideas and inspiration early on. Jokes (especially raunchy ones involving big dicks) repeat themselves, ditto the storylines. As a result, Nights of Noir turns unfunny and tiresome in the extreme, which is a shame because a large crew of actors, led by Scott Gerard as a trenchcoat-wearing shamus named Bolt, work awfully hard to make things work.
Wilson is a clever writer at times, but she shouldn't have directed her own play, if only because she desperately needed someone to tell her when cutting and/or rewriting were in order. She also should have dispensed with the mock striptease she performs between acts. It makes the evening seem like a vanity showcase.
