Photo Flash: Bag&Baggage's ROPE Begins Tonight at The Venetian Theatre

Bag&Baggage, Hillsboro's resident professional theatre company, presents an excruciatingly suspenseful production of the classic thriller ROPE throughout October at The Venetian Theatre in downtown Hillsboro. Directed by Guest Director Rusty Tennant (Artistic Director of Portland's Fuse Theatre Ensemble) and starring a cast of celebrated Portland actors, ROPE is the second terror-noir production presented by Bag&Baggage to celebrate Halloween, following on from last year's critical smash Dial "M" For Murder. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the cast in costume below!

"A superman," wrote Nathan Leopold at the age of 19, "is exempted from the ordinary laws which govern men." Leopold was writing to his 18 year old lover, Richard Loeb, as the two contemplated one of the most shocking and horrific crimes of the 20th century. Together, the two men murdered a young classmate and buried his body by the side of a road, all in the desire to commit "the perfect crime."

Patrick Hamilton denies that his 1929 play ROPE was inspired by the Leopold and Loeb murder, although how that could be the case is inconceivable. In ROPE, two young men conspire to murder a fellow student...for the fun of the thing...and then invite their victim's friends and family to a dinner party where they serve cocktails and hors d'oeuvres off a trunk containing their victim's body. ROPE is a chilling story of deception, arrogance, violence and guilt; a story that was so gripping it inspired one of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest cinematic triumphs.

ROPE was written in 1929 and was the author's first theatrical success. The play had some relative success in the West End and on Broadway but it wasn't until 1948 when Alfred Hitchcock famously adapted the play to the screen that ROPE truly became recognized as a classic of the thriller genre.

The production stars Trevor Jackson (recently seen as the Prince of York in B&B's Richard III) as Brandon and Nathan Dunking (last seen with B&B as Slim in Of Mice and Men) as Granillo, the two masterminds of the so-called perfect crime. They are joined by B&B newcomers Victoria Blake as Mrs. Debenham, Alec Lugo as Sabot, Joel Patrick Durham as Kenneth, Signe Larsen as Leila, Phillip Rudolph as Sir Johnstone and Michael Tuefel as Rupert Cadell (the role played by Jimmy Stewart in the Hitchcock film). Bag&Baggage Resident Artists Melissa Heller (Costume Design), Molly Stowe (Lighting Design), Megan Wilkerson (Scenic Design), and Emily Trimble (Company Stage Manager and Props Design) round out the creative team.

Tickets at www.bagnbaggage.org or 503-345-9590.

Photo Credit: Casey Campbell Photography

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