Next Act Makes it Snappy with ‘Red Herring’

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Image courtesy Next Act Theatre

Red Herring - Next Act Theatre

Terse, to the point—the hardboiled crime fiction that gave rise to the snappy dialogue of Double Indemnity and other film noir was Hemmingway on speed with a jigger of underworld argot. The style was so distinctive that it was easily parodied early on (Bob Hope’s 1947 comedy My Favorite Brunette).

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Photo courtesy Next Act Theatre

David Cecsarini

David Cecsarini

Film noir and the era it represents are the setting and references for Michael Hollinger’s comedy Red Herring. The place: big city America; the time: the McCarthy era. The humor is apparent in plot and casting: Joe McCarthy’s daughter is engaged to a Soviet spy and when a stiff is fished out of Boston harbor, the tough-talking detective is a dame. Hollinger twists the genre like a pretzel—a salty one.

This month, Next Act Theater reprises its 2005 performance of Red Herring, a comedy that was also staged in 2018 by Windfall Theater. “It’s the kind of script that makes you laugh just reading it,” says Next Act’s Producing Artistic Director David Cecsarini. “Hollinger is a very witty guy; I find his humor cumulative. He loves to introduce a motif and return to it, embellishing as he goes. I guess that’s a pretty dry way of explaining it, but it is definitely effective.”  

For Red Herring, Next Act built a set suggesting a fishing dock in Boston harbor. “There are 24 scenes with many locations, so the set has various levels, stairways, an archway and a door that can be used to suggest the various locales necessary,” Cecsarini says. “It will do a few tricks—tip of the hat to scenic designer Rick Rasmussen and master carpenter Ron Weirick. We’ll be supported by projections, upstage, which will carry images to suggest locale as well.”

A cast of six will bring 18 characters to life, “counting the corpse,” Cecsarini adds. “Hollinger set it up that way, and it gives the actors some fun challenges: multiple characterizations, quick changes.”

Expect the fast pace of film noir—or maybe screwball comedy. “The dialog, as written, will establish its own pace but in general, there won’t be much down time or over-wrought contemplation,” Cecsarini says. “The scenes themselves are mostly short, so the pace of events has a natural push forward. But Hollinger has written in a few plateaus, allowing for quieter humor with a touch of tenderness and empathy.”

Is there any danger when staging a genre spoof that the cast might over-do it? “The key to spoof is that you play it straight,” Cecsarini explains. “If you wink at the audience or play for laughs, you’re done for and the audience has every right to turn against you. The circumstances are real, the events are momentous, with consequence. The heart of comedy, just like drama/tragedy, is truth.”

Truth in a noir spoof? “I’m a 1954 Baby Boomer and most of our generation grew up in a land of plenty, of safety, of opportunity. Or did we?” Cecsarini asks, pointing out that the period “was fraught with world turmoil—Korea, Vietnam, Chinese and Soviet threats—and domestic struggles—atomic bomb worries, Joe McCarthy, fake spies, and real spies, an emerging civil rights movement. Only from the apparent safety of our sheltered perspective in front of a glowing Howdy Doody screen could we think that we were in a golden age, a time to reclaim, when America was great. 

“As in the play, I think the essence of America is a constant struggle to move forward, to seek solutions, to make the best effort to understand and assist. We have challenges today; some different but some quite recognizable. Success will come by forging ahead, not by holding back.”

Cecsarin concludes: “I’m not really sure any of this is actually within Hollinger’s play, but it comes to mind as we prepare to embrace his crazy, fun world.”

Red Herring will be performed Nov. 24-Dec. 19 at Next Act Theater, 255 N. Water St. For tickets and more information, visit nextact.org.