Play Review

Ismael Rubalcava

April 4, 2005

Theater 100 Ð'- Play Review

"COPS"

When I found out that I had to attend theater Play's [plays] for class I was looking forward to attending them. I told my wife that I had to attend and she had to go with me. Since I was not too excited about going to a play I let my wife pick out the play.

We decided to see "COPS" at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood. The two main characters are undercover Chicago police officers. They would always come to the diner early in the morning and tell stories of there experiences in the police department. But this particular night was going to be different from any other night. As we proceeded to enter the theater we walked up a flight of stairs to the second floor of the theater. As I entered the theater I was surprised how small it was. The stage was set up as a diner in City of Chicago in the 1970's at approximately two in the morning. The diner consisted of a working stove, frying area, and all the working restaurant equipment. As I walked into the theater I noticed one of the actors standing by the stove cooking what appeared to be bacon. The smell of bacon filled the air. The cook, was also playing the part of the owner of the diner, was interacting with the waitress like we did not even exist.

As I was seating and waiting for the performance to begin I was looking at the stage area and was very impressed to the detail they put into the set. The set was a small area with about five tables, 4 bar stools, and wood panel walls. I noticed their [there] where [were] three actors on stage: the waitress, the cook, and a customer reading a newspaper and eating his omelet. The lighting was art deco design with fluorescent round balls that hung below the ceiling.

The door opened in the diner, an actor walked into the diner drenched in water. I could hear the sound effects of the rain. The actor sat on one of the bar stools in the counter. The door opened again and there was one of the main characters of the play. This character was one of the undercover police officer's [officers] that was a regular at the diner. This actor gave a great performance. His interaction with the other actors was, as they really were not acting at all.

The second undercover officer came into play and they had something to eat. As they ordered their food they started to talk about their experiences as police officers in the streets of Chicago. They used a lot of profanity and they smoked cigarettes while at the diner. I could smell the cigarettes and the food that they were eating. All of the props are real. I was amazed as to how everything was as real as real life.

Throughout the scenes of the play I noticed several characters popping into the scenes. The interaction of the character as they entered the scene seemed that they had no problems in there [their]