For example, under different circumstances, it might not be unusual for Sen. Joe McCarthy’s daughter to be engaged to a Russian spy. Or for a dead man to be married to one woman but engaged to another. Or for a detective to be married to a criminal, but looking to marry a CIA agent.
“The Red Herring” is a play of just those circumstances – or, more accurately, those comedies of error.Set in 1952, is a murder mystery with detective Maggie Pelletier hot on the case of a stiff fished out of the Boston Harbor. Well, after a lot of twists and turns, it turns out that this stiff is just who Maggie has been looking for. In truth, the stiff is the red herring of the play.
NEXT ACT'S PRESENTATION
Next Act’s presentation of “Red Herring” is delightful. They use the stage to the utmost of their advantage with sliding tables and beds, and pieces that pop out of the stage to make set changes much quicker. While this is a bit noisy for the audience, it worked pretty well for efficiency of changes.
The only odd thing about the set was the use of a video projection screen behind the stage to show advertisements from the day, or a harbor scene, or the name of a shop. It didn’t fit the rest of the feeling of the play, and was sometimes a little awkward.
The dialogue of the play is fast moving with tongue twisters and hot remarks flying left and right. It reminded me of a film noir, but in color and in the flesh. Occasionally, the actors would pause after a zinger of a line had been delivered to let the audience catch up with the comedy. This didn’t feel condescending or unnatural; it is just how I expected the comedy to be delivered from this type of genre.
THE ERA
The year of 1952 is an interesting time to set a play: McCarthyism was raging, babies were booming, birth control was sold on the public market, “I Love Lucy” was the favorite TV shows, hydrogen and atomic bombs were being dropped on Bikini Atoll (over 20 between 1946-1958), and area codes were first used. I’m not sure if it was a time of innocence, or a time of self-destruction. But it was definitely a time of poodle skirts and petticoats, of suspicion and suburbs, and of espionage and expansion. Everyone seems to remember the 50’s as a happy-go-lucky time because everything was changing so rapidly.
The year works perfectly for “Red Herring” because it is about all of those things. It is about three couples trying to make it work in a world that has it out for all three of them. They shouldn’t end up together given the circumstances, but in the end, everything seems to work out.
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