CRIMINALITY, Keyhole Players, at Heartland Studio Theater. It starts like a police procedural: officers Bill and Tom pursue troubled teens Rick and Mark, who’ve killed someone while robbing a bank. Tom and Mark are hotheads, Bill and Rick smarter, cooler customers. But just when you think you know what’s coming, the script goes from hackneyed to insane: two consecutive scenes end with Tom storming off “to go do my job!,” the teens’ relationship takes on a weird My Bodyguard meets The Public Enemy color, and bereaved husband/dispossessed father/parole-jumping coke dealer Jay shows up, transforming the plot into a Dickensian exercise in coincidence and revealed kinship. Cycling through cliches with deadpan aplomb, the plot careens to a bloody finish that’s equal parts Hamlet and Reservoir Dogs. The punch line: this hyperderivative mishmash aims for heavy Odets-style drama. Fortunately the cast’s grim dedication makes this ludicrous script truly hilarious, far funnier than the ironic late-night treatment it screams for would have.
