Men of Tortuga

The actors at Profile Theatre are just plain good. As is their director (Rick Snyder, Steppenwolf Ensemble member) for this launching of their 20th Anniversary production of Men of Tortugas.

"Men", written by Jason Wells, depicts the plot of three business men to assassinate their adversary. In this case, the audience doesn't know who that is. The brilliance of this script is in its use of the audience to partake in the assassination plans.

Fred A. Wellisch (Tom Avery), Jeff Kling (Todd Lahrman) and Jack MCCabe (Kit Maxwell) are dead on in the suitably stereotypical roles of the faux placator, the hot head, and the deep-thinking, ego maniac who is willing to die for his reputation, respectively. The fact that you hate each of them (though less so with the egotistical fellow) throughout the production is, in this case, a good thing. They portray, in a sense, the poster boys for the white-male, elitist criminals.

Darrell W. Cox, as Taggert the weapons specialist, is brilliant as always. His ticking time-bomb interpretation of the role is emblematic of the three plotters' severe lunacy.

Eric Burgher, as Allan Fletcher, the young idealist trying to mediate through this insanity, is believable and leaves the audience feeling almost sorry that he could be so easily duped.

There is no doubt that this is an excellent way to spend a Friday evening.