←Recommendations of Plainclothes

Plainclothes is such a fabulous play! It deals with racial profiling and the us vs them mentality while at the same time being hugely entertaining and often hilarious. The characters are rich and the kind of roles actors dream of. I really love how Plainclothes handles so many big issues without ever feeling preachy. This play is great.

Taut and full of tension, while still allowing time to showcase hilarious, all-too-human characters. A damning indictment of class, capitalism and structural iniquity without ever stooping to the level of a "problem piece".

A hilarious, devastating, electrifying play that wades into the murky waters of loyalty, tribalism, and the special bonds people make working crappy jobs. Davis crafts such a likable and believable group of teammates with a finely tuned ear for the way coworkers interact, and how corporate management pits workers against each other. I laughed out loud just reading it, I can imagine it's even more potent onstage!

PLAINCLOTHES presents us a cast of multi-dimensional, exceptionally well-rendered individuals with potent needs, flaws, and motivators. Each member of the large ensemble is distinctly-voiced and speaks with the uneven rhythms of natural speech. Davis explores identity, the lengths we go to protect ourselves or our loved ones, and privilege with such an astute eye towards intersectionality, it's hard not to empathize with the conflicting perspectives on display. This is an absolutely hilarious piece with some well-timed and well-earned gut punches to its beloved characters. Spectacular work and a good showcase for a diverse, talented ensemble!

You can imagine that department store employees who work security and loss prevention might have some interesting stories to tell, but PLAINCLOTHES gets much deeper than that. It explores a particularly strange intersection of race, class, and prejudice. The workers tasked with navigating this complicated terrain are paid barely above minimum wage, and just want to get through their shifts and on with their lives.

Taut, fast, and unflinching, this funny and sharp-eyed play does a better job stealing its audiences' attention than most of its thieves do stealing the merch.

god I love plays about subcultures of any kind, and Spenser Davis' play PLAINCLOTHES is crazy original, set in the basement of ... every store I worked in during high school ? You can just FEEL the linoleum. A terrific ensemble piece about the varyingly dedicated and not-so-dedicated guardians of the Land of Retail.

Choreographed small scale work life story involving life behind cameras for a team of security officers in a dingy backroom watching Chicagoans behave and misbehave. A wonder of language play and dialogue excellence (overlapping and otherwise). Despite a few quirky plot moves toward the end, I was mesmerized, laughed often, cried a bit. A sibling play, plotwise, to Ethan Lipton's modestly-scaled, delicately observed comedy RED-HANDED OTTER that premiered by Playwrights Realm at the Cherry Lane in September 2012.

This tight, smart, funny play skates on a lot of challenging ice without ever falling through. With its big, vibrant, diverse cast of characters, and its whip-quick code-switches between Black Friday retail workplace comedy and electrifying Chicago social drama, I think it'd make a better annual holiday show than Yet Another Muppet-less Christmas Carol. This play feels timely, but in a way that doesn't seem likely to stop being relevant any time soon.