A Hard Boiled Spy Spoof for the Holidays

Mary MacDonald Kerr, Dylan Bolin, Zach Thomas Woods and Bo Johnson (covered). Photo by A.J. Magoon.

​Next Act Theatre enters the holidays with appealingly non-holiday counter programming as it presents playwright Michael Hollinger’s Cold War spy spoof Red Herring. A very engaging Mary MacDonald Kerr plays longtime detective Maggie Pelletier, who is investigating a Russian spy ring. Dylan Bolin makes a charismatic appearance as Maggie’s love interest and fellow detective Frank Keller. Frank is looking to get Maggie to commit to him, but she’s not going to feel comfortable with the arrangement until after she is able to bring-in the Russian spies. Maggie’s status as the central character in the detective story makes an appealing alternative to the traditional male-dominated hard boiled detective drama.


The uneasy romance between Frank and Maggie is paralleled in the script by a mirror romance between young lovers played by Eva Nimmer and Zach Thomas Woods. Nimmer is charmingly conflicted as Lynn McCarthy--daughter of the infamous senator from Wisconsin who led the search of phantom communists in the 1950s. The good news? Her boyfriend just proposed to her.  The bad news? He’s a Russian spy. Woods’ relatable idealism as a Russian spy helps balance-out the politics of the ensemble. Villains and heroes alike are shown in a sympathetic light that glides gracefully into the light comedy of the story.


Bo Johnson and Kelly Doherty round out the cast as a beleaguered Russian spy named Andrei Borchevsky and his love interest--a woman looking to guide him into further espionage activity. Johnson is as clever with his meekly reluctant Russian wisdom as Doherty is with her earthly, jaded cynicism. Doherty is brilliant with the fast-paced deadpan  Dashiell Hammett wit. She also makes an endearingly comic appearance as Lynn’s mother--the housewife of Joe McCarthy. The exaggerated placidity of her deep Wisconsin accent adds to the local flavor of the show considerably.


Kerr is firmly ensconced in the role of Maggie. Every other actor in the ensemble plays a variety of other characters that all manage to make a fun impression on the production. Bolin is fun as a harried priest taking two different confessions at once. Nimmer makes an appealing counterpoint to the sweetness of Lynn McCarthy as a bitter clerk who is forced to deal with marriage licenses. Woods is fun as a droll Republican coroner eagerly awaiting the election of Eisenhower. Johnson plays a few different roles...none more subtly impressive than that of a covered corpse in the morgue. It’s a hell of a challenge to lie there doing nothing and look convincingly dead...even beneath a sheet like that. Johnson has a great stage presence.  The fact that he was able to suppress it and just lie there is actually really, really cool.


Set Designer Rick Rasmussen has ingeniously put together a set that would feel perfectly at home in the cover of an old pulp detective novel. He maximizes the space in a way that allows for stylish bits of set to work in a variety of different settings. In places it feels like on old movie poster come to life amidst the iconic gumshoe detective costuming of Amy Horst. Once again, David Cecsarini smartly brings together an impressive array of talent to vividly realize the potential of a script that could have easily drifted into cheesy cliche. Beyond light comedy and spot-on hard boiled detective cloak and dagger elements, Cecsarini and company develop a deeply enjoyable pair of romances onstage that are deeply satisfying in their own right.


Next Act Theatre’s production of Red Herring runs through December 19th at the Next Act space on 255 S. Water St. For more information, visit Next Act online.