As the prodigal scion of a beloved crime-busting family, Dick Sweat (TJ Washburn) may be Encapa City’s least favorite private investigator. But nobody else is in town is hard enough to rise to the occasion and thrust themselves into the moist, dirty crevices where killers lurk.
Recruited by his widowed sister-in-law H.J. (Anna LeFlore) to solve the murder of a despised drama critic whose withering negative reviews were even more acerbic than my own (a tall order), Sweat puts the screws to a trio of silly suspects — Taylor Harrell, Stephen Lima and Leyal Lawrence — in this double entendre-drenched noir parody.
Writer-star Washburn’s mock Philip Marlowe monologues strike just the right smuttily satirical tone, and co-director Brandon Robert guides the cast to deliver their rat-a-tat dialogue with suitable snap.
The whodunnit’s solution is somewhat arbitrary, but this persistent Dick is certain to penetrate the funnybones of theater lovers willing to wink at their own prurient pretensions — just as long as they aren’t one of those godforsaken puppeteers.
Lowndes Shakespeare Center
Dick Sweat: Private Investigator
Orangutan Arts
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This article appears in Summer Guide 2023.