The Getaway Driver

Play (2026)
by Deborah Salem Smith and Charlie Thurston
Directed by Curt Columbus
Central Square Theater
A Rolling World Premiere with Trinity Rep and Northern Stage
Central Square, Cambridge, MA
October 29 – November 29, 2026

Scenic and Costume Designer: An-lin Dauber; Lighting Designer: Christina Watanabe; Associate Scenic and Costume Designer: Kyle J. Artone; Co-Sound Designer: Kaileykielle Hoga; Co-Sound Designer: DJ Potts; Video Designer: Peter Sasha Hurowitz

With Rebecca Gibel (Katherine), Rachael Warren (Clare)

In 1970, Katherine Ann Power, a student at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, inspired by radical politics, got involved in supporting a robbery of a bank in the Boston area by driving a getaway car. Of the three others involved in the robbery – a woman, Susan Saxe, and two men – one of the men had a gun and wound up shooting and killing a policeman. Katherine and Susan took flight and Katherine went underground for many years. She moved out of the Northeast and set up shop under a different identity in Oregon. She got married, had a child, and ran a restaurant. In the 1990s, the burden of living a lie got to her and she engaged in figuring out how to come clean and how to serve a sentence for her crime. This play follows her story, but also the story of the family of Officer Walter Schroeder, the murdered policeman and father of nine children, told by his daughter, Clare Schroeder. Both sides have their say, and there is some curiosity in how things develop after Power is incarcerated. (See Spoilers below for more.)

What an unexpectedly moving play and great production this is! With two excellent performances, the story of Power, the fugitive, and the story of the family of the slain Officer Schroeder, are passionately delineated. The result is a solid and persuasive account of impulsive and not well-thought-through political action that turns violent. And, as well, it gives a clear and thorough sense of the personal consequences on both sides.

There is a good accounting, by Power, of her secret life after she goes into hiding and takes up a false identity, and some sense of the struggle she underwent in maintaining it. Though this rendering is persuasive, the play might have focused a bit more of Power’s internal struggle leading towards her decision to come clean. That decision certainly came through as a result of an implicit understanding of her complicated psychological status, but a somewhat more developed articulation of that struggle would have been apropos. Certainly, the success of her hidden life – as a restauranteur and as a spouse and mother – comes through, but we only get a hint of what troubles her within.

The account by Clare Schroeder of her family’s struggle with the killing of her father is more developed. Consequently, the role, as embodied so beautifully and earnestly by Rachael Warren, gives a vivid sense of the trauma and unsettledness posed by not only the killing but by Power’s escape. The portrayal is intense and vivid, and Warren brings to the role a strong sense of the hardboiled and solidly tough kind of persona that characterizes a certain Boston type. It is extremely well-played and forthright.

In the end, Rebecca Gibel as Power, gets her moment in the moral sun (see Spoilers section) and it is then, in particular, that Gibel gets to shine in this role. It’s a strong and solid narrative depiction of the events, which, of course, are moving on their own terms.

Together, Warren and Gibel give a forceful and unrelentingly poqwedul duo performance. The direction by Curt Columbus is beautifully done, and overall, this is another commanding production by Central Square Theater, which, in this instance certainly demonstrates its capacity for doing interesting and innovative work.

– BADMan (aka Charles Munitz)