‘How to Steal a Picasso,’ at the Unicorn Theatre, is farce with an edge

The history of farce is long and honorable, but we rarely see contemporary playwrights take a stab at it.

Our friends out at the New Theatre like to revive titles by British farceur Ray Cooney and his American counterpart, Ken Ludwig, both of whom are masters of slamming-door timing. But farce on the Unicorn Theatre stage has been freakishly rare.

But “How to Steal a Picasso,” a fast-moving two-act play by William Missouri Downs now receiving its world premiere at the Unicorn, makes perfect sense for the midtown theater company. The production, directed by Gary Heisserer, benefits from a terrific cast and shows that it’s possible to write a farce that connects to a contemporary audience.

Set in a depressed, blue-collar area of Detroit, the play revolves around two key plot points: an out-of-the-blue award for Otto Smith, a mediocre artist past his prime, and the theft of a priceless Picasso original from the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Walter Coppage plays Otto in a wild, expansive performance that breaks new ground for the veteran actor. Otto is married to Belle Smith, described by the playwright as “Donna Reed on Ritalin,” played brilliantly by Cathy Barnett, a fine comic actress with impeccable timing.

The Smiths have two adult kids: daughter Casey (Katie Kalahurka), a street-savvy conceptual artist, and Johnny (Tommy Gorrebeeck), a highly skilled but reformed art forger. Kalahurka several years ago established herself as a uniquely gifted comic actress. And Gorrebeeck, in his Unicorn debut, makes a strong impression by handling a character who on the surface might seem “normal,” but who’s as deranged as anyone else in the family.

Rounding out the cast is Darren Kennedy as Mr. Walker, the CEO of the institute, whose nebbishy exterior conceals sociopathic impulses. The wild humor of this character doesn’t really kick in until relatively late in the play, but when it does, Kennedy makes an indelible impression.

Amid all the crazy plot turns, Downs finds opportunities to make valid statements about our perceptions of art, delusional self-styled “artists” and how art has lost any meaning beyond its value as a commodity.

Gary Mosby’s scenic design yields an inventively executed middle-class home placed within a trashed-out neighborhood and gets an assist from Alex Perry’s lighting. Sarah M. Oliver’s costumes are conventional with the exception of her eccentric outfits for Barnett and Kalahurka.

The opening-night performance felt rushed, especially in Act 1. If the actors slowed it down a bit and let the material breathe, the show would be even funnier. Even so, this is a memorable showcase for some exceptional performances.

This story was originally published January 31, 2016 at 12:53 PM with the headline "‘How to Steal a Picasso,’ at the Unicorn Theatre, is farce with an edge."