Nelson Algren was literature’s answer to Edward Hopper for the interior worlds he limned and filled with the lonesome anger and throwaway wit; some cats just swing like that. The Chicago writer was well known in his time, winning the National Book Award for The Man with the Golden Arm; an activist, he was tracked by J. Edgar Hoover. If Algren fell out of public favor, some of our best writers insist on his greatness, and in his centennial year, several gathered to present a play from his words. Barry Gifford slips into Algren’s voice like a pair of well-scuffed shoes, while Willem Dafoe beautifully preserves a newly unearthed story by simply reading it.