Theater Reviews

Apr 17, 2009 - Reno Little Theater's "Wait Until Dark" is an old-fashoned thriller that most often thrills

By Jack Neal

Film noir is back, but this time it’s on stage.

Actors like to be seen and heard. That’s why they’re actors. And that’s why the last scenes of Reno Little Theater’s “Wait Until Dark” are so out of character. It’s not quite totally dark, but it’s about as close to it as a-dark-and-stormy-night can get.

The play, a 1966 Broadway hit by Frederick Knott (who also wrote “Dial M for Murder”), is a thriller and a rather appealing one. Suspense formulas are often created out of violations of common sense. And so it is with “Wait Until Dark.” As film editor Maureen Nolan once observed about the genre, thrillers usually produce lines such as: “O.K., whatever we do, we need to stick together. Now, you go that way and I’ll go this way.” So much for sticking together.

Regardless, Reno Little Theater is having fun scaring audiences and Nevada’s oldest performing arts organization is drawing its largest crowds in sometime with “Wait Until Dark.” People just love the thrill of being frightened.

And so, if the “Wait Until Dark” plot doesn’t thicken - it at least simmers.

New Yorker Sam Hendrix has returned to his apartment from a business trip with a doll stuffed in his luggage as a favor to someone he hardly knows. Sam is supposed to deliver the doll to a sick girl, but he misplaces it. That’s unfortunate, because the doll contains a large stash of heroine some very unsavory characters want. To make matters more harrowing, Sam again takes off on business leaving his blind wife Susy at home alone to deal with one let’s-ransack-her-apartment creep after another.

Jim Martin has directed the play and it’s taut enough to pack a wallop. The only drawbacks to having the play work at top speed are sluggish cues for scary music and hesitant scene-ending curtains. Bravo Martin’s walk-down apartment set. It’s a perfect environment for “Wait Until Dark.”

Rachel Sliker plays the blind wife with the shrewdness that makes Frederick Knott’s play work. (Audrey Hepburn also played Susy to excellent effect in the 1967 movie.) Mick Moore is just right as the comforting husband. Hannah Davis plays Gloria, the feisty little girl from upstairs, just like a feisty little girl from upstairs should be played.

Doug Mishler is Harry Roat, the heavy, and he’s as menacing as a sinister Richard Widmark famously pushing a lady in a wheelchair down a long flight of stairs. Dave Martens plays Mike Talman, a con man who poses as one of Sam’s old army buddies. He’s very smooth at winning Susy’s confidence as he slithers about trying to do her in. Dustin Ardine plays Sgt. Carlino, a phony police sergeant, and he brings palpable menace to the part.

Mona Young-Quinby’s lighting design is ingenious. Mike Poudrier’s special effects are a major assist. Now, if everything would work with a tight and frightening sense of rhythm, “Wait Until Dark” might scare even more. As it is - for close to heart-skipping terror - you won’t do better than Reno Little Theater’s “Wait Until Dark.”

The Reno Little Theater’s production of “Wait Until Dark” can be seen at the Hug High School Little Theater, Sutro Street at North McCarran Boulevard, Reno, Nevada, April 3, 4, 10, 11 (the performance reviewed), 17, 18 (2009) at 7:30 p.m., and April 5, 12, 19 at 2 p.m. For information call 775-329-0661 or go on line at renolittletheater.org.