A Steady Rain

Actor Justin Stewart Cotta is playing Denny in this two-hander at the Old Fitz Theatre, and says it’s not so much “men walking around with a cowboy stride, chest puffed out, doing the cop thing”, but an exploration of masculinity in the modern world and how it shapes how people live.

“[The play is about] two Chicago cops, best friends since kindergarten, and of course all the typical Chicago street things take place,” says Cotta. “But they’re more of a backdrop to a relationship between these two guys and the fragility of it, and the inability of these two guys, as close as they are, to deal with anything other than their jobs – and they’re fairly inept when it comes to dealing with their emotions.

“It’s kind of refreshing in the way that it deals with male psychology and relationships. The Chicago streets and the ensuing madness is almost a backdrop to that relationship, so it’s a little different to your film noir cop thriller in that regard, mainly, but by the same token it’s a really entertaining piece of writing as well.”

Denny’s counterpart onstage is Joey, played by Nick Barkla. “Denny is trying to look after his family, he’s a family man,” says Cotta. “Joey is a recovering alcoholic trying to find his way in the world. If we don’t find that in our storytelling, then it does just turn into tough guys doing their thing.”

There is also a certain power dynamic inherent to the relationship between the men. “Of the two, Denny is the more sanguine, kind of out-there, law-unto-himself kind of guy, and Joey kind of follows in Denny’s footsteps,” Cotta says. “They want to be detectives … the dream of being plain clothes policemen and working their home streets is the ultimate goal for them.”

The director of the Old Fitz production is Adam Cook, who Cotta says “has a great eye and a great ear for delicacy”.

“Being about men – two cops, ostensibly – it would be easy for the play to sort of end up a dick-swinging party, if you’ll excuse my vernacular,” the actor says. “We wanted someone really intelligent, with a good brain and a good heart, who would eke out the bits that are tender. It’s easy for guys to get up onstage and show anger … We really wanted to avoid it just being a night of testosterone.”

However, A Steady Rain remains very much about the experience of and expectations around masculinity. “There are all these dynamics going on that are born of that pressure to be ‘the man’,” Cotta says. “Denny carries this weight around of [knowing] he’s the head of the family, and he’s failing his wife Connie if he’s not doing his job, if he’s not putting away bad guys. You can definitely see that they’re victims of their own lack of communication; they’re victims of their own lack of decency.”

If this story of two policemen with a complex relationship, struggling with expressing their emotions and coping by becoming unhealthily absorbed in their jobs sounds familiar, there’s a good reason why.

“True Detective took a lot of inspiration from this play,” says Cotta. “There’s definitely a tip of the hat to Keith Huff’s A Steady Rain in that show. Those guys [Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson] are fantastic in it, and they both bring a wonderful psychology to the show.”

[A Steady Rain photo © Lachlan Woods Photography]