Wait Until Dark
by Frederick Knott
Brooks Atkinson Theatre
Review by David Roberts
It is more frightening to experience
horror in the light than to wonder where horror should be in the dark.
This truth is at the crux of the several problems that haunt the stage
of the revival of Frederick Knott's 1966 thriller, "Wait Until Dark"
which opened on Sunday, April 5th at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. What
occurred on stage while lighted wasn't sufficiently horrifying and because
of that what happened during the blackout wasn't fearful at all.
Starring Marisa Tomei, Quentin Tarantino and Stephen Lang and directed
by Leonard Foglia (Master Class), the revival's limited engagement will
run for only sixteen weeks.
"Wait Until Dark" is supposed to be the chilling story of Susy
Hendrix (Marisa Tomei), a blind woman who unwittingly becomes involved
in the underworld dealings of a sinister drug trafficker, Roat (Quentin
Tarantino). Left alone in her East Village apartment, Susy becomes the
target of Roat's sadistic attempts to reclaim a mysterious doll stuffed
with a fortune in heroin. This traditionally constructed thriller premiered
on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on February 2nd 1966, with
a cast featuring Robert Duvall as the merciless Harry Roat, Jr. and Lee
Remick as the blind Susy Hendrix. Directed by Arthur Penn, the original
production ran 374 performances, earning Ms. Remick a Tony Award nomination.
Two national road companies followed in 1966 and 1967 playing seventy
cities. Prior to the production's Broadway opening, producer Intel Ferrer
purchased the film rights for his wife, Audrey Hepburn.
Considered one of the screen's most memorable thrillers, "Wait Until
Dark" opened in movie houses in 1967 starring Ms. Hepburn opposite
Alan Arkin's Harry Roat. The film, with screenplay by Robert and Jane-Howard
Carrington and direction by Terence Young, garnered Ms. Hepburn her fifth
Oscar nomination, losing out to Katharine Hepburn for Guess WhoŒs
Coming to Dinner.
At the Brooks Atkinson, things looked good at the beginning. A careful
look around the theatre confirmed that the Exit signs had been all but
dimmed completely. Michael McGarty?s apartment building exterior was stark
and well lighted by Brian MacDevitt. The audience wanted very much to
be scared stiff and especially so by stars Marisa Tomei, Quentin Tarantino
and Stephen Lang heading up the cast. Everything continued to look hopeful
as the brick facade of the apartment lifted and the interior basement
apartment set slowly moved forward and the lights dimmed.
It?s when the lights go up that the trouble begins and, unfortunately,
things do not get better for this production throughout the course of
the evening. I really did not see the need to say that again; rather,
I had hoped the cast and creative team would grant an interview which
would have given them an opportunity to express their commitment to the
project and share their feelings about the course of the production up
to this point, including the negative pre-opening press and the mostly
negative (sometimes scathing) reviews. Unfortunately, the interview I
requested was denied. I?d like to offer a constructive review with the
hope that audiences will continue to want to see Wait Until Dark until
its scheduled close after its sixteen week limited engagement.
The beginning of Knott?s play sets the stage for the audience and introduces
us to the sordid characters who are supposed to spend the rest of our
evening tormenting Susy and our human sensibilities to the breaking point.
We discover in a short space of time what Mike Talman (Stephen Lang) and
Harry Roat (Quentin Tarantino) are looking for and why. They all have
been called there by Lisa (Diana LaMar) to set up a gig, but Roat had
come earlier and met Lisa and killed her so he could be in charge and
have all the cash from the recovered heroine-filled doll deal. The play?s
plot is very sleazy; the staging and the characters are never sleazy enough.
For some reason, none of the staging works. We never get to care about
Susy and her photographer husband Sam. Though the playwright spends considerable
time setting the stage for Susy later mistrusting Sam, we aren?t given
enough at the beginning to care whether or not Sam is an adulterer, a
good photographer or a husband devoted to his recently blind wife. The
fault lies in the direction and in the acting. It seems that Director
Leonard Foglia does not have a grasp of how Knott?s play is supposed to
work and without this vision, it is clearly not possible for him to stage
the play in a way that might use the various talents of the members of
the cast.
As Mike Talman gains Susy's trust and we are introduced to Roat, Roat's
father then to Sgt. Carlino (Juan Carlos Hernandez), the plot develops.
But in this development, more disturbing questions arise: why, when alone
with Susy, do characters have to gesticulate for Susy? She's blind! It
would be far more effective to just stare or search or fool with some
object.
There are some problems with the script itself, for example the whole
burning cigarette thing. Susy would have known it was a cigarette burning.
She is very aware of her surroundings, even noticing when someone opens
the blind to see when in fact she knows that the room lights are on. But
this is basically a good story, well written with good plot development
and character development.
There is no reason to spend more time summarizing the plot. By the time
we realize that Roat is determined to do whatever it takes to get the
doll and the heroine inside, we have lost interest. There has been no
terror and no psychological taunting and teasing. When the lights go out
and Roat and Susy pursue each other, we aren?t sufficiently interested
to be afraid of the outcome. We came to the theatre hoping to be entertained
and frightened, a little less sure of our own safety and security. We
leave the theatre wondering what happened and how so many talented people
could have made so many wrong choices. I had hoped to find out. But what
happened to this production of "Wait Until Dark" will have to
remain for me a mystery.