'Down Past Passyunk': Revisiting a volatile neighborhood conflict

A. Zell Williams' Down Past Passyunk is one of those rare plays that makes you sympathize with the very kind of person you despise. And that makes it exactly the sort of play that InterAct Theatre Company specializes in: a human story about a politically volatile topic.

The plot springs from the true and ludicrous events that took place - and perhaps are still taking place - eight years ago at Geno's Steaks (which, for anybody who has not been down past Passyunk, is the garishly lit competitor of Pat's King of Steaks - both South Philly landmarks.) In 2006, the owner of Geno's, Joey Vento, put up a sign at the counter reading "This is America: When Ordering Please Speak English," launching a debate about whether immigrant patriotism can be measured by linguistic competence.

Williams has invented a new South Philly corner, occupied by Grillo's Steaks, where third-generation owner Nicky Grillo (the terrific Wiliam Zielinski) foments neighborhood bigotry and violence against the recently arrived Hispanic community, especially a competitor across the street, Ignazio Guerrero (Bobby Plascenia).

The plot is complicated by Nicky's feisty daughter Sophia (Alex Keiper, absolutely convincing and a pleasure to watch) and her former boyfriend, Stanley Drago (Brian Cowden, equally convincing), a tormented, lovelorn cop whose South Philly accent has been erased by an Ivy League education (there is a small, stunning moment when, at the end of his rope, terrified and guilt-ridden, he reverts to the neighborhood accent). The media are represented by an ambitious newscaster (Kittson O'Neill) who exploits the ugly confrontations for her own career purposes.

The result is both an engrossing family drama and morality play - does Nicky learn how wrong he's been, but learn it tragically too late?

Down Past Passyunk (the "Mason-Dixon Line" of South Philly) is also a play about real estate, as so many American plays are, and the landlord, Vince (William Rahill, who makes a clichéd character utterly believable), plays a pivotal role in both the neighborhood and the family.

Is there a better way to write about time passing and things changing than to chart the changes in a neighborhood: Italian, Hispanic, gentrifying yuppies? Just ask Emma (Alice Yorke), who, eight years later, is selling not steak sandwiches but quiche and overpriced decaf.

There are a few moments that seem like the playwright's intrusions: Would Nicky really use words such as ergo or miscreant? Would he say, "I am proud to be an American but the American Dream is kind of on hiatus"?

Director Matt Pfeiffer creates a world onstage that feels painfully real but that is as watchable as a fast-paced TV police drama.

Presented by InterAct Theatre Company at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., through April 27

Tickets: $15-$36

215-568-8079 or www.interacttheatre.org

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