” A Matter of Red Herrings” reviewed by Julia W. Rath

[rating=1]A Theater in the Dark has created a brand new audio-only online show for its listeners, entitled “A Matter of Red Herrings.” Billed as a “mystery comedy”, the comedy is goofy, and it’s a mystery why this show was made in the first place. That said, this radio production is well acted and very technically proficient. The soundscape is wonderful; the music and sound effects are great; and the variety of voices is superb, especially in how well the actors alter their voices to suit the different characters. But that does not make up for the insipidness of the overall story as more and more details come to light. Written by Greg Garrison and directed by Corey Bradberry, this highly original script is full of word play, sexually-tinged language, innuendo, and unusual—if not outrageously funny—proper names. Sprinkled throughout is the stunning use of descriptive language that makes portions of the audio well worth listening to. What is best about the show is that it is structured nicely by chapters, so we are never lost regarding the action—at least, not initially. But a bit over thirty minutes into the show, I decided that it was a losing cause to try to figure out all the twists and turns, and by the time I reached the penultimate chapter, my head was spinning.

A 88-minute show in ten chapters, the story is centered around the detective agency of Steel and Blank. Detective Stainless Steel must find a replacement investigator after her former partner Blank has died. She hires Watley Holm, a newbie, to work on their first case as a team. The case is centered around a man named Armand Valdo, who is missing his most-prized possession from his display case of archaeological artifacts a/k/a “The Ark of the Coveted.” It is a giant ruby in the shape of a red herring. Valdo is also concerned about an upcoming horserace, where he is uncertain whether the race might be fixed. Although it is dubious why he has chosen to bet in a suspicious contest connected with the Wrong Brothers (Rod and Wilhelm), such is the nature of the plot. The mutual “acquaintance” who introduces Detective Steel to Valdo is, no less, Steel’s “old flame”, her former lesbian lover/ex-wife Vesper Kind. After the two broke up, Vesper has become Valdo’s fiancé, and what a tangled web we weave!

There are only complications if one chooses to dig a bit deeper into the tale. For starters, “A Matter of Red Herrings” is definitely anachronistic. The setting for the play is in 1920s Chicago during Prohibition. However, when the discussion turns to how to fix a horserace, the use of steroids is brought up. In real life, steroids weren’t invented until 1935, and those were for human use. It was not until the mid-1960s when the first rumors emerged that steroids were being used on horses and potentially to fix horseraces. Another anachronism is based in the former relationship between Steel and Vesper, her ex-wife. While lesbian and bisexual love certainly existed in the 1920s, this type of dialogue would definitely not have found its way into a Golden Age radio broadcast, which this production is supposed to mimic. If the lesbian and bisexual angles of the story are important to the author, then this audio play should have been set in the modern time period, where somewhat more blunt discussions of sex and gender are likely.

There is the absurdity in various parts of the plot, all of which seem to get worse and worse as time goes on. One example is that Steel says that when Vesper would go on stage, she’d be very anxious, so she’d give her Laudanum, an opium derivative. So if the evildoers can use chemicals on their steed, she’ll do the same with another horse. But this doesn’t solve the case at hand. The red herring is mentioned again two-thirds of the way into the show, and now the connotation of it takes a very weird turn, having to do with a French tickler. Another example of the inanity is “the intention to get plastered” as part of Steel and Watley’s detective strategy. There is a moment in the narrative when Watley uses a fishing reel to approach the bad guys while Steel uses a gun. Valconi eventually kidnaps Valdo. Their relationship is bizarre. For that matter, everybody’s relationship to each other is bizarre. And I still was not entirely certain of the connection between the red herring and the horses, except that Valdo and Valconi are common to both.

The cast includes Amy Gorelow (Detective Stainless Steel), Julian ‘joolz’ Stroop (Detective-in-Training Watley Holm), Christopher Meister (Vinnie Valconi and others), Laura Michele Erle (Vesper Kind and others), playwright Greg Garrison (Wilhelm Wrong and the narrator), and director Corey Bradberry (Rod Wrong). Original music is by Paul Sottnik.

Over time, I found the story far too senseless to hold my interest, although I listened to it to the very end. The puns are overflowing and so are the clichés, such that after awhile, none of this is funny anymore. The mustaches, disguises, and gags that spoof a legitimate mystery story become stale. It makes no sense when Steel comes back to life or when she keeps a race horse in a closet. There are too many references to Miss Direction (who has a male voice) and to Zip Lighter. In brief, I found the production to be an exercise in nonsensical convolutedness, and I should have been clued in when the phrase “It was a dark and stormy night” is constantly being repeated. To put it bluntly, this show is bad, and a lot of fine talent has been wasted on this script.

Steel is deceptive and gets information from a book she swiped from the Wrong Brothers while taking a punch. While that part of the show is actually good, the truly clever bits are few and far between. The show is meant to be fun, and it’s better to get a chuckle from the language and get the gist of this detective story rather than bother to analyze all the details, which, unfortunately, make the plot not so simple to follow. Having said all that, I won’t ruin the ending for those of you who want to listen to this fiasco.

“A Matter of Red Herrings”, produced by A Theater in the Dark, is available in streaming audio beginning August 4 at https://www.theatreinthedark.com/.

Price – $10.00 per stream

A season’s pass for all three shows is $25.00. Monthly patron subscriptions are $3.25 per month.

For more information about this show and general information about the theatre company, go to: https://www.theatreinthedark.com/blog/2223season.

Since the show is shown remotely on your computer, there are no COVID requirements!