‘Legacies’ Unravels With Too Much Talk

John Bishop’s “Legacies” at the Matrix starts out as a terse police procedural, then veers into verbosity.

Set in a small Ohio town during a sweltering July, Bishop’s steamy drama commences in the aftermath of an execution-style slaying. When the estranged wife of Bim Miller (L.L. Ginter), the town’s leading citizen, is killed in flagrante with her latest lover, police captain John Torski (Patrick St. Esprit) sets out to nab the culprit.

Emotionally isolated, Torski has carried a torch for the murdered woman ever since their high school days, when she jilted him in favor of his hated rival Bim, a brutal millionaire with a shocking secret. Convinced that Bim is the triggerman, Torski follows the spoor of family violence right into an affair with Bim’s daughter Joyce (Kim Murphy), a nubile sexpot who is toting her own burden of family shame.

Bishop, who also directs, has assembled all the elements for an effective detective yarn, not least of which are commanding performers in a number of roles. However, although Bishop knows how to put up, he can’t or won’t shut up. There’s a runny yolk at the center of his hard-boiled drama that dribbles slowly into soap opera. The compressed testosterone of the earlier scenes leaks into a lot of talk, even among the secondary characters, who vent, prolifically, about their lives and loves and feelings.

Sadly, from assured beginnings, the dramatic through-line is dissipated in subplots and chatter. We are well aware who the true culprit is from early on, but even his final tense confrontation with the police is fatally reiterative. The seeds of a good play are here, but Bishop needs a splinter of ice in his heart and a keener editorial eye if he wants to make this “Legacies” a richer bequest.

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* “Legacies,” Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends July 15. $20. (818) 906-0675. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.