none too fragile’s ‘A Steady Rain’ is a washout Bob Abelman Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal Member, International Association of Theatre Critics Any play penned by “House of Cards” and “Mad Men” writer Keith Huff is bound to be an intense, testosterone-soaked exploration into the male psyche. And “A Steady Rain,” a one-act two-hander whose 2009 Broadway incarnation starred action film attractions Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, most certainly is. The play, currently on stage at none too fragile, features two childhood friends who become Chicago cops. Denny is impulsive, explosive and corrupt to the core. Joey is a recovering alcoholic who carries and covers for his out-of-control best friend while falling in love with his wife, two small children, and the stability they represent. As the steady rain escalates, so too do their errors in judgement and the tension between them. The script consists of alternating monologues that recount past events laced with in-the-moment dialogue, all of which takes itself as stone-cold seriously, possesses the same urgency and flows with the same gritty poetry as a classic piece of film noire storytelling. Director Robert Ellis strips the production down to a bare performance space with only two black chairs, which reflects the emptiness in the characters’ lives and places all our attention on the words and their delivery. He provides scattered pools of light through which the actors walk in and out as they pace the stage in quiet desperation. And he hires the wrong actor to play Denny. For more of this article, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/.