The Goodman Theater isn’t messing around.  After launching the season with Brian Dennehy on a double bill of playwrights O’Neill (never a joy ride) and Beckett (a long cry from last year’s opener, Animal Crackers), artistic director Robert Falls brings audiences the world premiere of Brett C. Leonard’s “The Long Red Road”.

Directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman (who took home an Oscar starring in “Capote”), this hard-hitting show – maddeningly inert at times – is volatile in the best way, causing one to question not only one’s assumptions about the kind of human relationships it depicts, but the exercise of theater itself.

While this brutal examination of tortured lives does end with an intimation of positive change (or at least perseverance), it’s a rough ride. Tom Hardy, an Englishman known better across the pond (though upcoming film roles alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Charlize Theron should change that) is a slight man of medium height, the perfect physical type to play Sam, a little man with a gargantuan drinking problem who never stands a chance of redemption.

All swagger, forever swinging out at the world, Sam is more pathetic than frightening. Hardy brings a compelling mix of vehemence and vulnerability to the role, What’s more, in a part that allows an actor to go all out being “real”, Hardy throws himself nakedly to the task, digging deep rather than tossing of the the spittle-flinging, tic-studded performance so many actors fall for.

This post was sponsored by the Navy Pier IMAX Theatre. http://www.imax.com/chicago/