Door County’s Peninsula Players continue their season this week as they open the Fredrick Knoll drama Wait Until Dark. Actress Linda Fortunato stars as Susy Hendricksa blind woman who finds herself unwittingly caught-up in the activities of a group of con men. Leading the group is Jay Wittaker in the role of a man named Roat, whose accomplices include men played by Neil Friedman and Kevin McKillip, who did such an amazing job as the male lead in Penninsula Players Is He Dead? earlier this summer.
Director Joe Foust brings experience as a fight choreographer into the productionwhich should make for a compelling physical end to the drama, what with everyone wandering around the dark at certain moments in the play.
I saw a production of this play some time ago at Bucketworks. It was a Spiral Theatre production with an impressive cast including Ruth Arnell as Susy, Biran Richards, Randall T. Anderson and Matthew J. Patten. The show has a remarkably dark edge for something that was so popular on Broadway in 1966. It’s well worth the trip to Door County in late Summer to see one of the oldest theatre traditions in the state take on a well-crafted, dramatic thriller.
The Peninsula Players’ Wait Until Dark? runs August 19 through September 6.
