The Collective Project sends up film noir with The Red Herring
Tough-talking gumshoes, eager-eyed newsies, and double-crossing broads remind us why we love detective films
It was a dark and stormy night... Well, more of a sunny and clear afternoon really. But a recent matinee of The Collective Project’s world premiere play The Red Herring at the Goat Farm began with these words and took it from there.
The Red Herring is a spoof of 1940s and ’50s noir detective flicks: The story follows Detective Stainless Danger Steel (Matthew Myers) as he investigates a case as complicated as The Big Sleep or The Maltese Falcon. It naturally involves the requisite monologuing (nights are accommodatingly dark and stormy), metaphors (fog creeps into the city like a 13-year-old rummaging through his sister’s sock drawer), brassy dames, tough henchmen, and sinister crime bosses.