BWW Reviews: WAIT UNTIL DARK Keeps Tucson on the Edge of Its Seat

Continuing Arizona Theatre Company's 2014/2015 season is a 1966 Broadway hit thriller and a 1967 Oscar-nominated movie classic starring Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin: Wait Until Dark, by playwright Frederick Knott and adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher in 2013. This production, which will keep audiences on the edge of their seats, is directed by David Ira Goldstein, who celebrates his 23nd season as the Artistic Director of Arizona Theatre Company.

The play takes place in Susan's (Brooke Parks) Greenwich Village basement apartment, masterfully designed by scenic designer, Vicki Smith. This apartment becomes the stage for a gripping game of cat and mouse between the recently blinded Susan, Gloria (Lauren Schaffel), and three con men: Roat (Ted Koch), Carlino (Craig Bockhorn), and Mike (Peter Rini), all searching for the hidden diamonds in a doll that Susan's husband, Sam (Remi Sandri), mistakenly brought to their home on his latest trip from Philadelphia, unaware of the treasure inside. The game grows more intense as the darkness of evening falls upon the apartment and everyone inside, bringing forth the most frightening half hour of theatre ever and this classic thriller's unsettling conclusion.

Each actor of the ensemble brings their own dramatic flare, helping to ultimately cause fright and to relieve a little bit of the tension among members of the audience. Tension runs high at the top of act one, for the audience already expects to be frightened, as Bockhorn's Carlino first enters an apartment that is not his. He earns nervous laughs as he attempts to belatedly cover his tracks after realizing he has left fingerprints throughout. Bellowing laughs, accompanied by a slight sense of ease, comes from Schaffel's Gloria and her antics as a stubborn young girl, dealing with her temper in the only way she knows how: throwing around unbreakable objects.

The little amount of comedy, however, is not enough to calm the audience's steady growing anxiety, especially as act one comes to a close with a great sense of betrayal from Rini's Mike. As Rini signals his accomplices with the Venetian blinds, as they did before him, an audible gasp escapes the audience. Rini's smirk tells all: the man we were lead to believe was helping was doing anything but. Rini's unforeseen deception is difficult not to take to heart and leaves us worrying. How could go against Parks? How could he be working with Koch's character all this time?

How could he be associated with a character so selfish and terrible? Both attributes, however, Koch pulls off flawlessly. Koch's Roat presents a sense of madness that makes you feel uncomfortable. As Koch demonstrates how one would feel being burnt alive, you recoil back into your seat, almost wishing that you could put even more distance between yourself and the believable madman on stage.

Perhaps even more believable than Koch's madness is Parks as the recently blind Susan. Not once did Parks' demeanor falter through both acts. Her struggles on stage (bumping into furniture), as well as her strengths (heightened senses) feel incredibly organic and never forced. In the end, Parks moves with such grace in a realm her character has advantage over Koch's: darkness. This is demonstrated through one of Hatcher's adaptations to the script.

Among Hatcher's changes to Knott's original script are a change in era - from 1966 to 1944, while America found itself three years into its participation in World War II. He also manages to tighten and focus the language, making it leaner, to reflect the new period of time in which the world takes place. Hatcher also implements a play of shadow and light, which resonates from the film noir of the 1940s and the 1950s, beautifully achieved by lighting designer Don Darnutzer.

Through the use of light - and the lack thereof - Darnutzer helps produce ambiguity and paranoia in the play's final scene between Parks and Koch. It rises the audience's anxiety, it makes them feel as though they are being trapped. If they are not sitting in the edge of their seats before, they certainly are now, as they are introduced to a world that Parks' character knows too well: a world where they are robbed of their ability to see, but it's through this inability that Parks is able to evade Koch and survive. Parks proves that she is able to do things all on her own.

Wait Until Dark marks the Arizona Theatre Company debut of Craig Bockhorn (Broadway's On Golden Pond, Prelude to a Kiss and TV's Law & Order, The Michael J. Fox Show and Boardwalk Empire), Ted Koch (Broadway's The Pillowman, Death of a Salesman with Brian Dennehy, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and TV's The Good Wife and Gossip Girl) , Brooke Parks (Yale Repertory Theatre's Hamlet with Paul Giannani and several seasons at Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Peter Rini (Broadway's Proposals, A View from the Bridge and TV's Orange is the New Black, Blue Bloods, and SMASH!), and Lauren Schaffel (feature films Revenge of the Green Dragons, Admission, and CBS' Still Standing). Returning to the Arizona Theatre Company is Sandri (ATC's Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club, The Kite Runner, The Great Gatsby, and Pride and Prejudice).

This production of Wait Until Dark can be seen at the Temple of Music and Art, located at 330 S Scott Ave, until November 8th, just in time for the season of fright itself. The price of tickets starts at $37, with discounts available to active military members and seniors. Student rush tickets are also available for $10 for all performances, as well as half-price rush tickets for balcony seating one hour prior to curtain at the ATC box office (subject to availability). Tickets can be purchased at www.arizonatheatre.org, or by calling the box office at (520) 622-2823. Total run time is 2 hours, with a 15 minute intermission. This show contains strong, mature language.

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