Wait Until Dark at the Shaw Festival worth waiting for

 My last show of the season at this year's Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake was well worth the wait...the classic thriller "Wait Until Dark".  

I knew of the play and later the movie of course.  Frederick Knott's play hit broadway in 1966 and met with great success.  The 1967 film that followed was a classic, starring Audrey Hepburn as Susy and Alan Arkin as Harry Roat, Jr.  Oddly enough, I had never seen either the play nor the movie before attending the current production at Shaw; I was most familiar with the movie soundtrack provided by Henry Mancini.  Well I am a musical person after all!

Perhaps not seeing an earlier production of "Wait Until Dark" is not a bad thing, really, as I went in as a virgin, as it were, and let it work its magic on me for the very first time.  And that it did.  

The original by Knott was updated by Jeffrey Hatcher in 2013 and the play was moved from the Greenwich Village of the 60s all the way back to the 40s, and to my eyes it just seems to work better.  We see characters right at home in a 40s-era thriller and not one of them seems out of place.

"Wait Until Dark" involves Susan, a blind woman who lost her vision a few years earlier in an accident and managing to make her way in the world that has totally changed for her.  At this moment in time however, her husband is out of town after the two of them acquired a musical doll for some reason.  But the doll is more than just musical.  There is something valuable inside.

Enter a bunch of thugs who figure it will be easy pickings getting the doll and the enclosed valuables back from Susan while she's alone.  She's blind after all...but...she is far from helpless.  We meet Carlino, posing as a hard-nosed detective, played by Martin Happer.  He is working with Roat, played by Bruce Horak, and returning serviceman Mike, supposedly an old friend of husband Sam, played by Kristopher Bowman.

Susan has no reason to suspect Carlino nor Mike are anything other than what they say they are, but over the course of the play she starts to figure it out and realizes her life is in real danger.  It is then her steely resolve takes over and she has to outsmart them.  This she undertakes with the help of the only true friend she has at the moment, a prostitute and neighbour in the apartment building, Gloria, played by Eponine Lee.

The first act is rather long, building up to the pivotal second act which is played out in darkness but not completely due to theatre lighting.  It is then Susan is no longer the only one with a visual disadvantage and she makes it work for her with her heightened senses due to her lack of eyesight.

Director Sanjay Talwar keeps the tension building throughout and has an excellent cast at his disposal.  As Susan, Sochi Fried is both sweet and trusting until she can't afford to be; her performance is outstanding.  Happer is just seedy enough to fit the bill of a 40s-era hard-nosed detective to a "T".  

Bruce Horak as Roat, in several guises throughout the play, is fascinating to watch, especially when we realize in real life Horak is himself visually impaired.  Yet he navigates the stage with little problem throughout the play.

As Gloria, Eponine Lee is cocky, smart-ass and just enough help for Susan when she needs to be.  This is a finely drawn characterization.  Towards the end of the play we finally meet Susan's husband Sam, played by J.J. Gerber, as he returns home from his trip just in time.

The stage set is spare with a very long staircase indicating this is a basement apartment, but because of the huge space on the Festival stage, a rather large one.  But if I have one real complaint about the set it is the apartment door at the top of the stairs.  It sounds like nothing more than a closet door, when it should sound heftier and look more secure given this is Greenwich Village after all.  But that's a minor quibble.

Sure the play is showing its age a little bit, even with Hatcher's updating in 2013, but with the right cast and direction as we have in this Shaw production, "Wait Until Dark" still packs an emotional punch for today's audiences.  

"Wait Until Dark" runs at the Festival Theatre until October 5th and rates a strong three out of four stars.  For tickets and information go to www.shawfest.com.

Enjoy your week!

August 12th, 2025.

Tons of Money at Shaw Festival...Funny Money?!

 The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake has a long history of producing uproarious farces over the years, many of which I have enjoyed mightily.  I was eager to return to Shaw this season to catch director Eda Holmes' take on the classic 1922 farce Tons of Money, written by Will Evans and Valentine, otherwise known as Archibald Thomas Pechey.

This is the second time Shaw has produced the farce; the first time was Derek Goldby's 1981 production starring master farceur Heath Lamberts.  That was the year I moved to Niagara for the final stage of my radio career so alas, I missed that production.

Lamberts owned farce at Shaw for 12 seasons, including the immensely successful 1985 production of One For the Pot.  His comic timing and knack for wringing every last laugh out of most any situation kept the seats filled at the Festival every season he appeared.  

Alas, this current iteration of Tons of Money, though laudable on many levels, misses the mark when it comes to uncontrollable laughter, which would never happen with Lamberts leading the cast.  I smiled, I enjoyed, but frankly didn't laugh uproariously once.  Neither did most in the audience at the performance I attended.

Director Holmes in her Director's Notes references a magnificent 1899 silent film found on YouTube featuring author Will Evans called "The Musical Eccentric".  In it, Evans performs acrobatics with nothing but a chair, and it is breathtaking to watch.  She appears to take her cue from this silent short in directing this production as it is indeed physically demanding and at times borders on over the top antics by the actors.  

It takes a talented cast to pull off a play such as Tons of Money and make it truly hilarious, and the cast here is uniformly first-rate.  They give it their all but somehow, there are times the laughs seem hard to come by.

The story centres around failed inventor and debt-ridden aristocrat Aubrey Henry Arlington and his scheming wife Louise.  Deeply in debt, they discover Aubrey is in line for a sizeable inheritance but darn it all, even that won't cover all their debts.  What to do?  Wife Louise devises a scheme to have Aubrey fake his own death, thus wiping out his debts, and then come back as the next in line for the inheritance, cousin Henery from Mexico.  

In theory, good plan.  In reality, not so much.  As the Mexican cousin Aubrey has to face Henery's wife, who now realizes he is not dead and in fact all of a sudden quite wealthy.  Hmmm....Louise decides Aubrey must die again and come back this time as a parson.  But does that solve their problems?  This is a farce after all so I won't give away the ending, but suffice it to say much merriment ensures.  Just not uproarious merriment.

As Aubrey Arlington Shaw stalwart funnyman Mike Nadajewski flips, flops and generally cavorts about the stage with wild abandon, much like Will Evans did with the chair in the silent film.  He is always fun to watch and his timing is spot on.  His wife, Louise, played by Julia Course, is a good foil for his acrobatics all the while showing she is adept at getting a laugh regularly.

The rest of the cast is equally talented, especially Shaw veterans Graeme Somerville as the conniving butler Sprules and Marla McLean as the maid Simpson.  Andre Morin makes a memorable turn as the real Henery and Cosette Derome filled in admirably as his wife Jean Everard at the performance I attended.

This is the final season for the venerable Royal George Theatre, as at the end of the year work supposedly will begin on a new, slightly larger and much more accessible theatre in its place if all goes according to plan.  But in this cosy space the play is beautifully staged and dressed by Judith Bowden, who designed the sets and costumes.

This will not be the best show at the Shaw Festival this season, nor is it the best farce they have ever presented.  But if you have the time and the means to add an extra show to your visit, this one will be a good one to catch.  Just be mindful it is a farce that could be just a little bit more.

Tons of Money runs at the Royal George until October 5th and rates a respectable three out of four stars.

For tickets and more information, go to www.shawfest.com.

Enjoy your holiday weekend in Niagara!

August 4th, 2025.