Subway grinder

A married couple stands on the edge of a subway platform. The woman—young, sweet, a socialite—finds more of a father figure than a husband in the older man standing beside her. In his arms he carries their daughter, protectively cradling her from the late-night cold. They enter the subway car to find a mixture of people: several returning soldiers, an older couple, a recovering addict, a young African-American couple, others.

As they settle in for their long ride home, fate takes a fickle twist as it thrusts two murderous street hoods into the mix. The two begin a reign of terror, moving from one side of the car to the other, until they have successfully terrorized, threatened or beaten each passenger they have held hostage through the darkened subway passages.

It’s a thriller of a plot, if not one that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, in an all-too-real presentation of Nicholas Baehr’s The Incident, directed and adapted for the stage by Kevin Reed. The ambitious production, with a cast of 20, features a host of Actor’s Workshop regulars, including Rick Snow, Martin Lain, Beth Edwards, Jon Croke, Gretta Gerwig and Anthony D’jaun.

While the cast as a whole delivers above-par performances, D’jaun as well as David Stickler and Chuck O’Bear drive the impact of the play with the type of acting that makes Sacramento theater thrive.

The Incident is sure to leave theatergoers with a chill—not only from the text, but from the outstanding performances.