This wild, knockabout piece called Heist!, created for audience interaction in Louisville's unique 21C Museum Hotel, requires audience stamina as well for standing, walking, and trailing cast members through a labyrinthine plot. But it's a lot of fun, too.
One of the seven full-length plays in the 34th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville, it was conceived and created by ATL associate director Sean Daniels, who also directed, and playwright Deborah Stein, who wrote it. All Heist! characters were played by ATL's hugely talented Acting Apprentice Company of 22 young performers, obviously having the time of their lives.
The delightfully cliché-ridden story line is built around a much-anticipated, socially prominent museum event unveiling a priceless new work by reclusive contemporary art legend Archie Pellago. Security is tight, but undeterred art thieves still manage to steal the masterpiece in a stunning coup. Scotland Yard, Interpol, and tough-talking Louisville Police Commissioner Jefferson Washington Franklin (Robbie Tann) join forces to apprehend the perpetrators, who appear to have global interconnections. Commissioner Franklin enlists museum goers in the hunt for the criminals by assigning them to groups that uncover chunks of information in different museum settings that provide back stories.
No stereotypical specimen in this familiar caper plot appears to have been overlooked. There's a snobbish art critic (York Walker), a rookie cop (Matthew Whitfield), a prattling museum curator (Gwen Ellis), a preening socialite (Brett Ashley Robinson), and a Russian brother and his sharpshooter sister (David Darrow and Kara Davidson) determined to snatch one of 21C's signature red penguins -- not just any one of them but a special hard-to-find one that can fill a gap in their family history.
Viva, red penguins!
