Control

Stalwart investigative reporter Nathan Necessary informs the corrupt, savagely brutal mayor of aptly named Striptown (not far from Texarkana) that he's going to print the story of racist threats recklessly uttered in his cups by the swaggering mayor. In a recent episode of racial violence, five have died; now three more, possibly four, have been killed. The battle lines are drawn, the forces of ""law and order'' stand at the ready, guns loaded. Will the blacks, en route to a mass demonstration, be massacred, as the rednecks predict? Tension fills the air, is dissipated by the author's too-faithful rendition of the characters' aimless babble. The pace slackens, at times to a standstill, and the gathering storm stagnates. What might have been a gripping melodrama is swamped by a steady, deadly roll of tortured metaphors, less picturesque than maddening. (August 18)