All The Rage

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ReviewPlays.com

"Some people are alive simply because it's illegal to kill them"

If anyone were to ask what famous playwright holds the record for the most characters
killed in a story, the unanimous answer is (all together now) Shakespeare! A close second
would be Agatha Christie and now playwright Keith Reddin makes a bid to join the crowd
with this production where almost everyone has a gun and is not afraid to use it.

Anger management doesn't come easy to the characters in this energetic story that
engulfs ten people in a "six degrees of separation" type conflict. The central story opens
with gunshots in a darkened room as Warren tells his wife Helen he has shot and killed a
burglar. She notices the dead man and says , "That's Justin – your business partner!"

So begins the odyssey that involves Warren and his lawyer Tim, as they deal with Tyler and
Agee, two cops who unsuccessfully investigate Warren for murder. When Tim comes
home, Christopher (Tim's lover) is annoyed about Tim being away from home so often. As
it turns out, Tim has been seeing Annabelle, a money hungry underage female pseudo
hooker – (yes the same Tim who lives with Chris) and you know their relationship is
headed for Rockville.

There's Mr. Norton, a wealthy eccentric who learns that Mr. Tennel his secretary is
quitting, so he hires Warren's wife, Helen (who is posing as a man) and is now living on her
own, having left Warren because she's not sure about him anymore. Mr. Norton's ex-
secretary changes his name to Mr. Fennel and gets a job in a video store, where he meets
Annabelle (Tim's girl friend) and falls madly in love with her, but she thinks he's creepy
and tells Sydney, her gangster brother who swears he'll defend her honor to the death.

How all these people connect is a marvel of intricacy and intrigue, carefully woven by
author Reddin and skillfully managed by director Brian Shnipper whose credits include
several world premieres and many regional and local works. The stage seldom has more
than four chairs as props, but who needs them?

The way the story develops keeps you guessing and the last thing you expect is the high
body count that's splattered at various times by various people whose rage reaches an
uncontrollable level.

While this is billed as a dark comedy, and does offer some laughs, it's more a sobering
look at the breaking threshold of people who appear to be normal and average (whatever
that is) and are suddenly pushed to irrationality. The story shows how easily one can
cross the line and how some people seem to antagonize and press others to their limits.
Strong acting by the ensemble makes this almost chillingly believable.

Reed Rudy is Warren, ably counterpointed by Therese McLaughlin as wife Helen who is
particularly good playing a man as the secretary to the crotchety Norton, eminently
brought to live by Ned Schmidtke. Rachel Castillo is the punked out manipulative
Annabelle who is lusted after by Michael Sean McGuinness playing lawyer Tim and later by
Kevin Fabian overplaying a prissy Mr. Tennel / Mr. Fennel. Daniel Jay Shore is the moody
Chris, Tim's boyfriend and Jeff Swarthout and Ross Mackenzie portray the two cops, Tyler
and Agee, who are given a sense of scary incompetence, but no less frightening than the
psycho portrayal of Annabelle's brother, Sydney, by Karl Maschek.

The Front Page Online

‘All the Rage’ Is Under Way

Currently The Attic Theatre is staging the West Coast premiere for its 20th season finale. A highly unusual dark comedy, ''All the Rage" was written by Keith Reddin, and originally won 3 Joseph Jefferson Awards in Chicago. East Coast Director Brian Shnipper put the cast through its paces for a 6-weekend run that started last Friday. Shnipper, modest about his reviews, received raves for his East Coast production. Respecting Brian's modesty, I will be brief. "Brian Shnipper's terribly swift staging..." praised The New York Times. "Every performance is beautifully realized," the Newark Star Ledger. "All the Rage explodes at 12 Miles West Theatre with a bang...to the taut, well-paced direction of Brian Shnipper," said the reviewer for the Montclair (N.J.) Times. "All the Rage" is following the Patrick Marber serio- comedy "Closer," which just completed a highly successful eight-week run at The Attic (including a two- week extension). Theater critic Jose Ruiz , of ReviewPlays.com, wrote, "’Closer’...remarkably well acted and imaginatively staged." Hoyt Hilsman of Backstage West wrote, "With strong performances and intelligent direction, this production captures the provocative tenor of the text....Director James Carey understands that casting is everything in this piece and lets the actors strut their stuff. He also weaves the piece together skillfully, playing the light and dark shades with a subtle hand."

Both "Closer" and "All the Rage" have savage bites to them. They are cutting-edge, designed to make an audience prick up its ears and listen. Both have been made into movies with all-star casts. I asked James if he chose the two plays for that reason. He replied, "No,” he said. “I chose them because they're high quality plays with good, quality roles for my actors." The Attic has a repertory company with 30 members. Carey double-cast "Closer," which has four characters. "All the Rage" has 10 characters. Says Carey: ''At its core, ‘All the Rage’ is a modern-day revenge tragedy."

L.A.Weekly

ALL THE RAGE

A reproduction of Edvard Munch’s The Scream adorning the stage prior to Keith Reddin’s darkly
comedic and disturbing morality play serves as a herald for the work’s depiction of suppressed
anger in big-city America. Businessman Warren (Reed Rudy) holds his wife, Helen (Therese
McLaughlin), in contempt for suspected infidelities; psychopath Sidney (Karl Maschek) will kill
anyone who crosses him or his teen bimbo sister, Annabel (Rachel Castillo); and bipolar suit
salesman Chris (Daniel Jay Shore) is off his meds and threatening his attorney-lover Tim’s
(Michael Sean McGuinness) life when he keeps coming home late. As these and other well-drawn
characters cross paths — and pack heat — in Reddin’s surreal fairy tale, it is only a matter of
time before it all hits the fan. And when it does, the confrontations can cause laughs as well as
chills. While the upshot is fairly predictable, Reddin’s erudite text and a super cast under Brian
Shnipper’s fluid direction salvage it. Standouts include Ned Schmidtke as the wealthy yet forlorn
eccentric Norton, whose hatred for noise has made him a hermit, and Kevin Fabian as the
milquetoast Tennel, whose changing of his name to Fennel does little to change his sad destiny.

Theater Critic’s Choice: ‘All the Rage’

CityBeat (click here to go to the CityBeatn page)

Keith Reddin’s mordant 1997 comedy weaves together several narratives about urban Americans sliding down various psychological slopes, starting with a man accused of murdering his business partner. Soon the shooter’s wife decides to go incognito and dons men’s clothes, his gay lawyer’s unstable partner gets a gun of his own, a wealthy peace-craving recluse loses his valued secretary to a video rental shop, a near-psychotic young brother and sister make big trouble, and two cops try to keep tabs on all the others. Brian Shnipper’s West Coast premiere is cast to perfection and follows the bouncing ball among the many characters with expert timing.

–Don Shirley

Will Call (click here to go to the CityBeatn page)

All The Rage
by Keith Reddin
This play's enormous appeal stems from it's cast of characters, and what characters! They are so shrewdly cast, each of the ten actors seems born to the part, with exceptional performances by Therese McLaughlin, Rachel Castillo, Kevin Fabian and Ted Schmidtke. There's the eccentric millionaire, the suspicious husband, the wife on the run, a frustrated cop, a gay lawyer, a teenage floozie and her psychotic brother, ect., most of them interconnected by a thread of murderous rage. A dark comedic gem, full of razor sharp wit, it will ignite the gun control advocates and titillate members of the American Rifle Association in equal measures. The directorial expertise of Brian Shnipper is evident in the seamless scene changes that keep the uncluttered stage action relentlessly on course. Not counting a few misfired light cues, this show is right on target. Put on your bullet-proof vest and go!