Delaney Williams of ‘Shoplifters’: Familiar Face at Arena

People seeing Delaney Williams as Otto, a security guard, in the Arena Stage world premiere production of “The Shoplifters (by Canadian Playwright Morris Panych, who also directs) might be forgiven if they think they’ve seen him somewhere before. 

They would probably be right, but it’s also a little more than that.  Williams has the kind of face, voice and persona that have a familiar feel, look and sound to them. You think Irish, for sure, and big, sure. You think cop, lawyer, law enforcement—all of which he has done.

Hearing him on the phone, you remember that voice almost instantly—not only for his recurring and best known  role of Detective Sergeant Jay Landsman on HBO’s highly praised and still missed by many crime drama “The Wire,” set in Baltimore, but for his sometime role on as John Buchanan, a somewhat oily defense attorney who has represented members of the mob and others on the high-tension franchise “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” sparring with detectives and prosecuting attorneys.

“Yeah, some people remember that guy,” Williams said. “I’m sure we’ll be seeing him again, representing different defendants.”

“Television has an impact, that’s for sure,” said the veteran actor who’s also been on “The West Wing,” “Veep” and films like the recent “Beneath the Harvest Sky” with Carrie Preson and Carla Gallo.

But he works his way back to the stage “because that’s where you’re doing the actor’s craft, because it’s challenging and intense,” he said. “It’s a high wire act.”

Williams has another career right now: helping to raise two sons, Liam, 15, and Chili, 12.  “You have to consider that, being a parent is the most important job you can have,” he said.

He’s obviously up about “The Shoplifters” which brings him back to the familiar atmosphere of Arena Stage, where he was last seen in Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge,” just before the company moved into its dandy new confines.

“It’s great to be back,” he said. “And this project is such a special play.  It’s fast paced. I know it’s two acts, but it’s not going to  seem like that. I play a security guard who has a gung-ho partner, who tries to arrest an older woman for shoplifting. That’s the gist. But it’s a play about real people, not villains, good or bad people. It’s funny. It’s touching, too, and it deals with the kind of people—people who resort to a little shoplifting in stores, and security guards, whom you normally don’t see in the forefront in plays, in shows or movies.

Broadway star Jayne Houdyshell makes her Arena Stage debut as Alma, she of the light fingers and complicated heart and life.  She’s received two Tony Award nominations, including for the Kennedy Center-produced “Follies” in 2012 and for Lisa Kron’s “Well” in 2006, for which she also received a Theater World Award.

The cast also includes Jane Sokolowski as Phyllis and Adi Stein as Dom.

“The Shoplifters” is being performed at the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater through Oct. 19.