It is almost inevitable that when an actor has overwhelming success in a part he will become associated in the public's mind with that role. Daniel Craig is appearing with Hugh Jackman on Broadway in A Steady Rain. It is a testament to Craig's acting ability that within a matter of a few moments of the beginning of his performance, his connection with international super-sleuth James Bond is pretty much forgotten.

A Steady Rain is an exploration of the long-time friendship between two Chicago police officers, Joey, played by Craig, and Denny, performed by Jackman. The two-character play is in part a variation on the buddy cop films of the 1980's and 1990's. However, the surface camaraderie of those movies is replaced in A Steady Rain by an examination of darker currents which may exist beneath the deepest of friendships.

The play opens on what appears to be an interrogation room with two stark lights shining down on the protagonists. The fourth wall is broken and Joey and Denny address the audience as if they were speaking to an investigator. The two police officers had resolved a domestic disturbance call by leaving an inchoate Vietnamese boy in the care of a man who claims to be his uncle. The "uncle" turns out to be a serial killer who murders the boy after the partners leave. The outward events of the play were apparently based on a real incident involving notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

The title of the drama is probably a metaphor for the steady revelations of the details of the murder and the friendship between Joey and Denny. Just as steady rainfall can erode and change the face of a landscape, the disclosure of the details of the crime and the partners' relationship gradually but forcibly alters the audience's perception of the characters.

Initially, there appears to be a good cop/bad cop dynamic between Joey and Denny. Craig plays Joey with a winning, working-class earnestness. His character is a practitioner of modern police procedure and he would probably recognize the value of sensitivity training. Denny, on the other hand, is a stereotypical rogue cop who is not above consorting with petty criminals. Jackman's character also tends to think instinctual like rather than analytically which can be dangerous in an authority figure. Denny's tendency to react reflexively is the catalyst for the tragic outcome and tone of the play.

However, appearances can be deceiving and the above easy categorizations of the characters dissolve as A Steady Rain progresses. It is apparent that Joey is contending with his own inner demons and some of his actions call into question his true loyalty and friendship with Denny. The moral tapestry of the work becomes increasingly gray as a continuous stream of information is put forth by the police officers.

One can't help but admire the virtuoso performance of the two actors. (Craig is making his Broadway debut in this production.) The ninety minute play is performed straight through without intermission. At no point do either of the actors leave the stage. Of the two, Craig's performance is the more detailed and interesting. His accent and demeanor seem to reference a more specific Chicago background than the more generalized machismo of Jackman's performance.

A Steady Rain is written by Chicago-based playwright Keith Huff. While the overall arc of the play functions well, I thought that there might be too much expository detail at the beginning regarding the friends' backgrounds. However, viewer attention does not flag. At the performance that I attended, there were several collective audience groans at plot revelations that occurred in the second half of the work.

The dark texture of the drama is highlighted by the ominous sound design and original music of Mark Bennett. The simple interrogation room set occasionally dissolves into locations referenced in the script. This was a very subtle, cinematic effect created by designer Scott Pask.

Socrates has been quoted as saying that the wisest man is the individual who admits that he knows the least. A Steady Rain reminds us that many of our impressions of others are based on partial information and shallow, limited encounters. Public personae often hide complexity and the information that is revealed when public masks are removed can be unsettling. The play also seems to suggest that it is important to maintain a firm moral footing. The gradual, incremental slide into turpitude can be made ever more slippery by a steady rain.

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