Written by Carol Kassie
DELRAY BEACH, FL: Boca Stage’s first production in their new home at the Delray Beach Playhouse will be Frederick Knott’s classic thriller, Wait Until Dark. The production will run in the Playhouse’s Cabaret Theatre from October 26th through November 5th.
“Boca Stage has held off for years on producing a version of Frederick Knott’s Wait Until Dark because we felt his original script, with its roots in the drug-infested New York City of the 1960s and its myriad dated elements would no longer resonate with modern audiences,” says Keith Garsson, Boca Stage’s Founder, Executive Producer, and the production’s Director.
“However, in 2013, playwright and author Jeffrey Hatcher (Tuesdays with Morrie), updated the 1964 script by resetting the show in 1944, just at the end of World War II while keeping its New York City locale,” he continues. “This newly updated script is now tighter, faster, and no longer dated.”
The plot: In 1944 Greenwich Village, Susan Hendrix, a blind yet capable woman, is imperiled by a trio of men in her own apartment. As the climax builds, Susan discovers that her blindness just might be the key to her escape, but she and her tormentors must wait until dark to play out this classic thriller’s chilling conclusion.
“The MacGuffin in this play is the cache of diamonds that has been, through some very strange circumstances placed somewhere in Susan’s Greenwich Village basement apartment and the quest of some very bad guys to retrieve it,” Garsson explains. “Blood will be spilled, people will die… Wait Until Dark represents our first time (stab?!) a pure thriller, a cat-and-mouse chase complete with double-crosses, triple-crosses, and some very challenging staging.
“Fortunately,” Garsson says, “A top-notch cast and crew will make this endeavor a great ride through a theater classic.”
Garsson has cast Rachel Whittington as Susan, Shane Tanner as Roat, Rio Chavarro as Mike, Troy Stanley as Carlino, Michael Coppola as Sam, and Ellie Rose as Gloria.
The Stage Manager for Wait Until Dark is James Danford. Cindi Blank Taylor is the show’s Scenic Designer, and Andre Lancaster will create the Sound and Light Design, and serve as the show’s Technical Director. Backstage Managers are Anne Solomons and Eric Fields.
