“The crime of the century!” So screamed headlines with relative frequency in the century immediately preceding this one. And if you measure impact by number of fictional adaptations, Chicago’s “Leopold and Loeb” case was certainly among the top handful. In 1924, two prodigious Chicago teenagers who’d recently graduated from college — Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb — murdered a young neighbor in a test of Loeb’s theory that those of their intellectual level were immune to the average human’s issues of morality and conscience.
Five years after the murder, Patrick Hamilton’s play, “Rope,” premiered in London, built upon a Leopold-and-Loeb-like scenario, Alfred Hitchcock later adapting it into a film. “Compulsion” followed in 1959, based upon one of the multiple novels the case inspired. Gremlin Theatre allows you to crack open the amber and see how the tale was spun in 1929 with a very impressive production, one propelled by intriguing characterizations and imaginative technical elements.
It’s by no means a light summer murder mystery, but instead a grippingly tense battle of wits. Director Peter Christian Hansen has cast mostly college-aged actors, all very talented and all save one adopting a naturalistic approach that makes you feel as if eavesdropping on a casual gathering of old friends. But Hansen and technical director, set and lighting designer Carl Schoenborn make a fascinating choice that plunges the audience into the tension immediatel.
