What do you think?
Rate this book
[(How to Act Around Cops)] [Author: Logan Brown] published on
"A hilarious rendition of paranoia" - The New York Times
- GenresPlays
Paperback
First published April 1, 2006
4 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 6, 2022
Vicarious paranoia can be fun and cathartic. Witness How to Act Around Cops, the noir-ish suspense thriller by Logan Brown. Told in three scenes, Cops weaves a surreal, disorienting story about a kidnapping/heist gone sour and a traffic stop that turns out to be a terrible mistake. Without invoking any direct references, Schumacher and Brown conjure a world that reminds us of Body Heat, Double Indemnity, Pulp Fiction, and almost anything by Alfred Hitchcock; by which I mean that Cops is dazzlingly enigmatic, cool, and entirely original. Brown's taut plotting lets up in the final scene, which makes the piece less satisfying than we want it to be; but Cops is in every way a triumph.
It's also rather difficult to summarize, plot-wise, without giving stuff away: this play's very essence is the unexpected twist, one of which occurs every few minutes. It starts in a car on a dark highway, late at night. Two young men, Barnum and Madson, are driving along when they suddenly become aware that they're being pursued by a police cruiser. Though they don't seem to be guilty of anything in particular, they are boundlessly paranoid; the discovery of a woman's pink purse in the backseat really fans their panic.
What happens next--during the traffic stop, and then in a seedy hotel room and on another dark highway later that night--I leave for you to discover. Even if I tell you that no one is necessarily what he or she seems to be (maybe), and that there's a dark secret lurking in everyone's past (mostly), and that you won't guess (or even discover) all of the strange twists and turns of the plot--even if I tell you that, I don't think I've spoiled anything. It's easy to be seduced by Cops' elusive aura, and although--as already mentioned--the payoff falls short of desire, this is a theatrical roller coaster ride in the dark that keeps us laughing and/or giggling nervously and always, always riveted.
It's also rather difficult to summarize, plot-wise, without giving stuff away: this play's very essence is the unexpected twist, one of which occurs every few minutes. It starts in a car on a dark highway, late at night. Two young men, Barnum and Madson, are driving along when they suddenly become aware that they're being pursued by a police cruiser. Though they don't seem to be guilty of anything in particular, they are boundlessly paranoid; the discovery of a woman's pink purse in the backseat really fans their panic.
What happens next--during the traffic stop, and then in a seedy hotel room and on another dark highway later that night--I leave for you to discover. Even if I tell you that no one is necessarily what he or she seems to be (maybe), and that there's a dark secret lurking in everyone's past (mostly), and that you won't guess (or even discover) all of the strange twists and turns of the plot--even if I tell you that, I don't think I've spoiled anything. It's easy to be seduced by Cops' elusive aura, and although--as already mentioned--the payoff falls short of desire, this is a theatrical roller coaster ride in the dark that keeps us laughing and/or giggling nervously and always, always riveted.
Displaying 1 of 1 review