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Last 15 minutes of ‘Dark’ are spine chilling

When the College of Southern Nevada's "Wait Until Dark" begins, the small BackStage Theatre is in pitch blackness. We see the shadow of a man enter a small apartment. He yells, "Hello," and remains standing in the doorway. We then hear his echoing footsteps as he either looks for something/someone or tries to hide. Seconds later, still in darkness, the apartment is invaded by a second person. The two men prowl around, and we're not sure if they're aware of one another, or are about to be rudely introduced. Directors Russ Benton and Chris Mayse create a thread of suspense immediately in a play that usually takes a while to get going.

That thread is vital in Frederick Knott's 1966 thriller, and in this production, it comes and goes. We're at times on the edge of our seats as we attempt to figure out why three men are so eager to invade the life of a wholesome, blind woman (Mary T. Foresta).

The directors also get a lot of comic mileage in the deceptions the bad guys carry out to fool Hendricks -- and the way she slowly figures them out. Will Klundt convinces us he's a thug with a conscience: petty, menacing and likable. Michael Cassano comes across as a cerebral, heartlessly precise mastermind. The actors are genuinely terrifying. They don't, as actors often do in these roles, resemble sensitive, gentle performers trying to mimic "tough." Mark Brunton makes a major impression in the small role of Suzy's husband. With just a few lines, he communicates his character's love for his wife and his refusal to let her become dependent on him.

Too much of the script's power, though, is diluted by the lead actress' monotonous vocal patterns. Foresta is charming at first, and convinces us of her blindness by not overemphasizing it. But her nearly every discovery is accompanied by a childlike exclamation. There's no subtlety to Foresta, nothing off-the-cuff.

The last 15 minutes of the script are so well-executed that they're spine chilling. But there's a climactic moment (for which the play and 1967 film are famous for) that falls flat because of poor staging and, perhaps, the restrictions of the intimate, three-quarters round playing area.

Still, this "Wait Until Dark" gives off a moderate amount of pleasure -- especially if you're in the mood for a show that wants to say nothing more to you than, "Boo!"

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.

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