Wait Until Dark
Dorset Theatre Festival in Dorset, Vermont
Written by Frederick Knott, adapted by Jeffrey Harcher directed by Jackson Gay
“I’m not a very good blind lady.”
“Wait Until Dark” is the second best play Frederick Knott wrote (“Dial ‘M’ For Murder” is the best), but its one of the finest thrillers created for the stage. Susan has lost her eyesight in a car accident. She is married to a photographer, Sam. On a train back to New York he met a woman who managed to hide a doll in his luggage. She has come to their Greenwich Village apartment to retrieve it and has ended up dead. Her body is discovered elsewhere in the neighborhood the next day, and strange things start happening to their apartment and especially to Susan. That’s the base story of the play. The real story, or plot, is contained in the final fifteen minutes of the play, and, in the production currently playing at the Dorset Theatre Festival, those tense fifteen minutes are worth the ticket price and more.
Director Jackson Gay has used the adapted script well for this production. Instead of being set in 1966 when the play was first produced, it is now set in 1944, shortly before the end of World War II and Sam is a veteran who fought in Italy. He and Susan (no longer Suzy) met in the hospital where they were both recovering, he from war injuries and she from the accident that blinded her. According to this new script he has saved her typed love letters, a plot ploy that gives her confidence in him late in the second act. The date change hasn’t really made much of a difference to the storyline, just to some rationale bits to justify the presence of “Mike” in Susan’s apartment. Susan is played to a blind fare-thee-well by Sara Haider whose acting sears the gasoline sprinkled stage. Haider’s self-defense sequence at the end of the play is absolutely thrilling and totally believable. It is a truly wonderful performance, reminiscent of Lee Remick’s in the Broadway original production.
There are three villains who ultimately terrorize Susan. The first is Carlino, a New York City Police Detective played by Michael Barra. The second is Roat, played by Keith D. Gallagher. The third is Mike, played by Manu Kumasi.
Mike is a soldier, part of Susan’s husband’s Italian squad, someone Sam saved, a grateful compatriot come to pay a call on him. Carlino is a retired cop, now more a criminal, who can still play the role of a helpful, concerned representative of law and order. Roat is a man who can play two roles in five minutes and attempt to confuse Susan in her blindness. But Susan, though blind, has developed other senses, such as smell and hearing, and she is not easily confused by these men and their many ruses.
An upstairs neighbor, Gloria, a young girl whom Susan dislikes, serves as a part-time helper for the blind woman and in the circumstances of the play she becomes a true friend after a long and difficult relationship with Susan. Gloria is played here by Acadia Colan. The actress does a good job playing an obnoxious, bitchy child from a broken home. She takes out her anger and frustration on the blind woman and could be considered the fourth villain if she didn’t have a good side that emerges at just the right moments in the play.
Considering that the final fifteen minutes are played on a completely darkened stage, it is amazing how Jackson Gay’s direction of this play holds our attention while at the same time building our expectations. This is partly due to the performances of Haider and Gallagher and Kumasi. We are not even gifted with shadows and mime for the most part. Total darkness enlivens the play here and keeps us on tenterhooks as our ears draw us pictures with sound as the medium. The fine design crew have helped us up to this point in the play: set by Christopher & Justin Swader, costumes by Fabian Fidel Aguilar, and lights by Paul Whitaker. The final scene is designed by Fitz Patton for sound and David Anzuelo for fight direction. This is a thriller you won’t easily escape or forget. This company has delivered a fine opening show in rural Vermont.
‘Wait Until Dark’ plays at the Dorset Playhouse, 104 Cheney Road, Dorset, VT through July 9. For information and tickets call 802- 861-2223 or go to their website.
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June 30, 2022 at 05:45AM
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THEATER REVIEW: Thriller 'Wait Until Dark' at Dorset Theatre Festival through July 9 - theberkshireedge.com
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