Jittery Adam (Ryan Nicolls) and stoic Iraq vet Andre (Reginald L. Wilson) burst into a bank and compassionately take its small staff hostage, only to find themselves besieged by media and law enforcement in Stockholm Savings, an update of the classic 1975 robbery-gone-awry film Dog Day Afternoon. Michael DeMeo’s script hews fairly closely to Frank Pierson’s screenplay and retains some of the movie's acidic power. But the modernization brings problems of tone: The play’s treatment of Adam’s transgender wife remains curiously stuck in the '70s while attempting to reflect modern racial issues—African-American Andre is scapegoated for the robbery, and Adam chants “Hands up, don’t shoot”—often seem simplistic; they also don’t cohere well with DeMeo’s clumsily on-the-nose satire of media spin. (A vapid, selfie-snapping millennial bank teller seems to exist solely to make pop-culture references.) Although the pacing in this 75-minute show sometime lags, director Ashlie Atkinson makes dynamic use of the space, and the production’s intensity and performances are often compelling. But there’s only so much the play itself can get away with.—Austin Ruffer
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