BEAT THE JESTER, at Chicago Dramatists. Beverly-bred playwright Gary Slezak brings local color to this tale of aldermanic succession, and he also knows his family-drama archetypes. Paterfamilias and ward boss Slap Lucek has shuffled off this mortal coil but beams on mirthlessly from the barroom wall. Disappointing son Danny–who’s cut a deal with daddy’s rival Scully–mismanages the fiefdom, triggering the inevitable double cross, while bitter firstborn Jane bides her time, grim as a gangster’s moll. Enter last-born love child and half-brother Flood, a crazy self-styled prophet with a secret that could shatter the balance of power. It’s all pleasantly evocative, right down to the neighborhood-dive setting, nicely realized by designer Joey Wade. But for all its bloodletting and hysteria, the story remains curiously inert.
