“You fuckin’ amateur.” —Thomas Vaccaro, Danny’s brother, in Danny Casolaro Died for You
Casolaro’s investigations led him to a nest of miscreants and misfits reminiscent of the Watergate plumbers or the free-Cuba types depicted in Oliver Stone’s movie JFK. One of them was Mike Riconosciuto, portrayed here (by an endlessly entertaining Mark Richard) as a sort of street-smart version of Bobby Fischer, existing in a constant state of nerdish exasperation. Riconosciuto, aka Danger Man, apparently got the conspiratorial ball rolling, telling Casolaro that he was one of two Republican operatives sent to Iran to bribe the ayatollahs into holding on to their American hostages until after the 1980 presidential election, so as to deny Jimmy Carter the “October surprise” he needed to beat Reagan. Riconosciuto’s alleged reward for this service was tacit permission to modify and market Hamilton’s PROMIS software. Riconosciuto claimed to have installed a secret “back door” in the program, through which someone—say, the U.S. government—could spy on anyone using it. Of course, he also said he’d built a laser from scratch and worked on ways to weaponize common household appliances.
Through 12/21: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM Timeline Theatre 615 W. Wellington 773-281-8463timelinetheatre.com $29-$52
