Spy Theater Review: ‘Never the Sinner,’ Leopold and Loeb by Steve Parks

If a whodunnit is your murder-mystery cup of tea, “Never the Sinner” may not be up your alley. But if the psychology of a pair or murderous lovers who kill a teenage boy just for the thrill of it – for sport if you will – will always beg the question: “Why?”

The senseless murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks by a pair of intellectual and amoral snobs – “supermen” they thought of themselves – Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold Jr. – shocked and appalled the nation just over 100 years ago. It was widely considered the “Crime of the Century” in 1924. Today, I fear, we are beyond being shocked by anything or anyone. Which makes an excellent argument for why now – why now does this 1985 play by John Logan seem so strikingly relevant? As directed by E.T. Wilford for The Factory Arts Project at the Waterfowl building in Easton, “Never the Sinner,” makes us wonder how some people – men mostly – with power and sheer chutzpah get away with anything. Not that Loeb and Leopold got off scot free for murder. But they did not hang as public fury and a zealous prosecutor demanded.

 The sinister pair, played by Max Brennan as Loeb and Roegan Bell as Leopold, are almost sympathetically charming, aside from their hideous crime and “supermen” arrogance that seems to absolve them of any sense of guilt. The other two principals in this true-story drama are the opposing counsels, prosecutor Robert Crowe, played with convincingly judgmental outrage by Alex Greenlee, and Ray Nissen as the famed defense attorney Clarence Darrow, takes on the bold strategy of pleading his clients guilty at the outset of the trial with a daring strategy of sparing them the noose. The legal back-and-forth between the two makes for a morality play on its own merits quite aside from the guilty clients.

As Loeb, the one who actually struck the murderous blows on the defenseless teen, Brennan effusively appears to lack any sense of remorse, while Bell as the more introspective Leopold tries to hide his regrets, perhaps even from himself. As gay lovers, their homosexuality is underplayed except near the end of the trial and the verdict that is never revealed.  Only then does their affection for each other become vividly apparent.

Their dress-alike earth-tone suits chosen by producer/costumer Cecile Storm and matching bright red tennis shoes set them apart from the rest of the cast, although each player also wears tennis shoes of more muted tones – even Clarence Darrow.

The set and lighting design by director Wilford is a rather busy shuffling of chairs and tables between scenes on a slightly raised stage on the floor of the huge Waterfowl space with seating on three sides, making for a relatively intimate setting. Depending on where you were seated, especially front and center as I was, the too-bright lighting was at times quite distracting – a condition that can easily be corrected in upcoming performances this weekend.

Loeb and Leopold were only about five or six years older than their victim – a fact that Darrow deployed in his argument for leniency by calling them “kids.” As a juror, I’m not sure I would’ve fallen for that, even though in general, I don’t favor the death penalty.