Minnesota Fringe is over and the new #TCTheater season has not yet begun, leaving a gap that we have come to count on
Dark and Stormy Productions to fill. They came through again this year with a show that is literally dark, the 1966 Frederick Knott play
Wait Until Dark. The
previous two productions I've seen have used prolific local playwright Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation, but this one uses the original script (which was adapted into a 1967 film starring Audrey Hepburn). It's a gripping thriller with an unlikely heroine - a blind woman who uses her heightened other senses to outsmart a bunch of criminals to protect herself and her husband. As always with Dark and Stormy, this production features a talented cast, tight direction, and importantly for this show, a detailed design that pitches us unto total darkness and makes us feel like we're in that terrifying apartment.
Wait Until Dark is playing at Gremlin Theatre through September 13, but you might want to see it before or during Labor Day Weekend, because after that the #TCTheater season comes in like a lion.
The play opens on a couple of criminals casing a basement apartment in Greenwich Village that we soon learn belongs to newly married and newly blind Suzy hand her husband Sam, who aren't home at the moment. A third criminal arrives, and reveals that he needs their help in finding a drug-filled doll that their former partner in crime Lisa gave to Sam, and must be in the apartment somewhere. They agree to help, for a price, and set about running their usual con on Suzy, in which "Mike" pretends to be an old friend of Sam, getting Suzy to trust him, "Sargeant Carlino" pretends to be a detective investigating a break-in, all while Sam has been called away on a photography job. But Suzy is not as easily conned as the men assumed she would be, and with the help of the endearingly bratty neighbor girl, Suzy figures out what is happening. She comes up with a plan that involves removing fuses to pitch the basement apartment into utter darkness, putting her at an advantage over her sighted attacker.
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| photo by Alyssa Kristine |
Artistic Director Sara Marsh convincingly plays the blind Suzy, making her way across the set with arms outstretched feeling for the furniture, looking at nothing. She also beautifully plays Suzy's various realizations as she figures out what's going on, the knowledge of it dawning on her face, along with terror, confusion, and fierce determination. Josh Jabas is the affable but mostly off-stage Sam, the bond between the couple established in one short scene. Despite being a U of M grad, Madelyn Tax makes an adorable young Gloria, a bit of a brat, but flourishing under Suzy's trust. Paul LaNave and Bob Malos are great bad guys, the former also showing some depth of character as Mike feels guilty that Suzy trusts and believes him. Last but not least Paul de Cardova (a late replacement for Luverne Seifert noted on the program above) is coldly terrifying as the con man in charge, willing to do whatever he needs to to get what he wants.
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| Sara Marsh and Bob Malos (photo by Alyssa Kristine) |
Benjamin McGovern directs the play with a great sense of building tension, including a good use of silence, and the space in Gremlin's thrust stage. If you can, sit in the middle section or the side closest to the entrance, because some comings and goings happen on the other side which represents the rest of the apartment, with hints of things happening back there. The lighting effects are crucial to the success of the play, and accomplished very well by lighting designer Shannon Elliott in this space, in coordination with the modest but neat apartment set (designed by Bobbie Smith). Light comes through the one small window with blinds, there are lightning flashes, a red light for Sam's photography work, light streaming through the door to the hallway a few steps up, and most importantly, when Suzy turns off all the lights, you cannot see a thing, which makes every sound more terrifying. The sound design (by Aaron Newman) also plays an important role, with the plot dependent on telephone rings, as well as other ambient noise like rain.
For a gripping and thrilling night at the theater, head to Gremlin Theatre in Vandalia Tower through September 13 for
Dark and Stormy's Wait Until Dark. And check out Lake Monster Brewing or King Coil Spirits also in the Tower, with pizza available at OG Zaza inside King Coil, and sometimes food trucks.
