Dublin's hard boys take center stage in the American premiere of Rank by the Irish playwright, Robert Masey. Rank,coming off previous productions in Ireland and England, is aptly titled. At the play's core is a struggle for power between two petty criminals, Jackie Farrell (Ron Bottitta) and George Kelley (David Schaal), who once were like brothers. Jackie is a casino kingpin, George a cab-driver with a gambling jones. Jackie holds George's markers but offers him a way to pay off his debts: pick up a satchelful of hot money -- the proceeds of an armored-car robbery -- and deliver it to him.
Rank has a thin storyline involving the issue of who keeps the loot, but mostly it is a character-driven play that works best when digging into the complex relationship between Jackie and George, one that's shot through with love and hate, resentment and pride. The suspense comes from trying to guess which one of these wiseguys will either outmuscle or outwit the other.
The additional characters are Carl (Kevin Kearns), another embittered cab driver; Fred (Jason Killalee), Jackie's baseball bat-wielding son; and Bush (Karl Maschek), George's obsequious sidekick. Together they form a quintet of raffish hoods with a gift of the gab: they are forever spouting off comically and profanely, in the style of the modern school of Irish playwriting.
Rank might not be a great play, but it is blessed with skillful acting and directing.
