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Waukesha Civic Theatre strikes a chilling note for mystery buffs in Frederick Knott’s Wait Until Dark.
The play debuted on Broadway in 1966 with Lee Remick in the leading female role. Soon afterward, a movie version starred Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin and an HBO version appeared in 1982 with Katharine Ross and Stacy Keach. The latest version was written in 2013 by Jeffrey Hatcher (a playwright who has christened several new plays at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater). Wait Until Dark opened last weekend at Waukesha Civic Theatre.
As the curtain rises, one meets a pair of recently paroled villains summoned by a third criminal who lets them in on a secret involving a doll transported innocently by a photographer on his flight home from Canada. The doll contains enough heroin to make them all rich men. That’s good news for Mike (Zack Oliver), who has already gambled away his earnings and soon will need to start running from his investors. His partner-in-crime, Carlino (Logan Milway), isn’t very bright and warms easily to the idea proposed by the ringleader, Roat (Casey Van Dam). Roat already has proved his wickedness by killing a woman who the other two men know very well.
Before anything else happens, Mike and Carlino are instructed to make the body disappear.
Then they go to work on their next subject, a young blind woman named Suzy. Like Lee Remick and Audrey Hepburn before her, Kaila Rachel Casalino impresses with her convincing and visceral performance. Of course, Susy’s blindness plays right into the thieves’ hands. Or so they think.
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Director Kelly Goeller can be credited for creating a stunning build-up to the climax. Casalino (as Susy) is everything one would want in a heroine, just as bad-guys Milway, Oliver and Van Dam exhibit cunning and patience in their quest for the elusive doll. As Sam, Suzy’s husband, Lloyd Munson makes a convincing spouse. Susy sends for help through a young neighbor girl (Ella Vitrano), and the scenes between the two are some of the most entertaining.
Like the TV announcer says about a well-known weekly program, Wait Until Dark can claim the same tagline, “Don’t see it alone.”
Through May 13 at Waukesha Civic Theatre, 264 W. Main St., Waukesha. For tickets call (262) 547-0708 or visit boxoffice@waukeshacivictheatre.org.
