THE WATER ENGINE
Written in the form of a radio play, The Water Engine concerns a Capra-esque little guy, the likable, soft-spoken immigrant inventor Charles Lang, who builds an engine that runs on water and for his trouble is persecuted and ultimately destroyed by representatives of one or more large, corrupt, unnamed corporations. If only, we’re invited to believe, Lang had been allowed to patent and market his water engine, America wouldn’t be nearly as polluted or as dependent on foreign oil as it is.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
In bringing The Water Engine to the stage, the folks at Profiles do as well as can be expected. The acting is up to their usual high standard–Joe Jahraus is especially good as the slick, evil lawyer–and the direction, by Jahraus and Darrell Christopher, is clear, clean, and unpretentious. I especially appreciated the fact that they never felt bound to present the whole play as an early-30s radio drama. Having established in the opening minutes that it’s being performed in a studio, with actors speaking their lines into microphones, they then move the microphones to the side and open the play out, which allows them to have the best of stage and radio theater: visible actors and a complete array of interesting sound effects. But even a superb production can’t make this early Mamet play seem deeper than the paper it’s printed on.
