If necessity is the mother of invention, then perhaps theater is her child.
With Frederick Knott’s script for “Wait Until Dark” calling for very specific stage directions, set and props, Elgin Theatre Company found it necessary to have someone build a specialty weapon, Director Larry Boller said.
“There’s a specific reference to a stiletto type of knife where the handle is in the shape of a girl. And so we needed that made. Obviously it’s hard to just go out and buy one,” he said. “Real switch-blade knives are illegal so we had to have something built that was fake, safe and looks realistic onstage.”
The suspense thriller opens Friday at the Kimball Street Theater in the Rider Center of Elgin Academy in Elgin. Performances, which run through Sept. 27, are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays.
First performed on Broadway in 1966, it was made into a movie starring Audrey Hepburn one year later.
“It features a lone blind woman (Susy) fending off two con men and a psychotic killer who are trying to retrieve a doll which was given to the blind woman’s husband, Sam — that unbeknownst to him contains packets of heroin,” Boller said.
The criminals are trying to retrieve the doll, which has gone missing. They break into the apartment and are trying to run a con on her, with one pretending to be a policeman and another posing as a friend of Sam’s, he said.
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“So it’s basically David and Goliath,” Boller said. “You have a lone blind woman, because her husband is away for most of the play working, trying to fend off these three crooks.
“I think the audience will identify with Susy, because that character is working against all odds,” he said.
While theater groups performed the play often about 20 years ago, it’s not as familiar to younger audiences, Boller said.
“So we’re just hoping the familiar name of the story — “Wait Until Dark” — the suspense thriller nature of the story, will appeal to people in the Elgin area,” he said. “And I think it will.”
One of the drawbacks of doing a play that also has a movie version is the audience comparing the actors on stage to those in the movie, he said.
“Sometimes they don’t want to see changes, they don’t want to see a different interpretation. That’s certainly a challenge to doing a show like this,” Boller said. “Fortunately the movie wasn’t that recent. So there are many people who have not seen the movie.”
Among the cast of six is actress Lori Rohr, who plays Susy. Having worked with her on two other productions, Boller said he knew she is “a quality actress and a bright lady,” who has risen to the occasion of playing someone without sight.
“Playing the role of someone blind is kind of stepping out of your comfort zone, trying to lean on your other senses rather than your sight,” he said. “Obviously you can see but you have to project a believable image that you can’t. I think that’s very challenging, and I think it’s fun for the audience to watch.”
The entire cast and crew, Boller said, is doing “a wonderful job.”
Doing any kind of mystery can be a challenge for a theater company, because quite often the playwright is very specific about the set, he said. That can include details such as how a door is opened and closed or when a light switch is turned on and off.
“This is no exception. ‘Wait Until Dark’ has an excess of stage instruction. Specific things. So when any group takes on ‘Wait Until Dark,’ the group has to re-create exactly what the playwright wants in order to make all the stage directions make sense,” Boller said. “And the lines are written so there are specific references to the wall plate and the photographic equipment and the small knives in the silverware drawer and the bedroom door that locks and all this very specific nuance that has to be matched up when you’re doing that production.”
Elgin Theatre Company even hired a stage combat expert to train the cast for all of the action called for in the script.
“Because of the use of the knives and the physicality of the show — somebody has to fall down stairs, for example — we needed someone who is trained to work with actors so we can keep everyone safe,” Boller said. “Make it more entertaining, keep it believable in appearance, but make it safe for the actors.”
Kathy Cichon is a freelance writer.
‘Wait Until Dark’
When: Friday-Sept. 27
Where: Kimball Street Theater in the Rider Center of Elgin Academy, Kimball Street and Dundee Avenue, Elgin
Tickets: $18 adult; $15 youth/senior
Information: 847-741-0532 or www.elgin-theatre.org