Article content Crooked Dicks Stage 6, The Gateway Theatre, 8529 Gateway Blvd. 2.5 out of 5 stars Knowing this show was written by Dylan Rosychuk, who was responsible for Hack, a horror production that got rave reviews during its Fringe run in 2019, I had high hopes for this detective caper.
The production quality and performances were good, particularly from Rosychuk, but the story lacks a raison d’être. Every character is familiar, every beat well-trodden. There are no real plot twists, no new takes on the genre, except that it’s a comedy, kind of? Two corrupt detectives — a wiry Italian New Yorker and a mustachioed bruiser with a buzz cut — turn against each other as they decide what to do with the sassy sex worker they have tied up in their motel room.
The show has the sensibilities of a different era, with character names like Floyd and Holden, yet it’s set about now, as we are constantly reminded via pop culture references shoehorned into the dialogue. It’s 90 minutes long, and frankly, it feels like it. Almost every scene, every exchange, could be tightened up.
There were more laughs in the third act, in large part thanks to Rosychuk’s indomitable energy and keen physical comedy, which helped end things on a high note. For a show that is frequently silly without being truly funny, I’ll let Rosychuk summarize it in the same words he used to promote it on Facebook: “It’s so dumb.” And hey, sometimes that works, but I’m not sure if it did here.
F.