Wait Until Dark, Lichfield Garrick - review with video
Plunged into darkness for what seems like an age, flashes of blade appear and screams of terror ring out – this thriller arouses a rush of adrenalin and excitement that lingers in the pit of your stomach long after the curtain has fallen.
Targeted by three crooks, blind victim Susy Henderson levels the playing field under a cloak of darkness and gives the audience a real taste of her terrifying experience.
This Frederick Knott nail-biter famously saw Audrey Hepburn in the lead role in the 1967 Oscar-nominated film version. Stephen King declared it the ‘scariest movie of all time’.
Certainly the climactic finale reaches a crescendo of tension and intensity as Susy tackles the three dangerous conmen in her Notting Hill Gate basement flat.
Playing the lead role in this Original Theatre Company production is Karina Jones, one of the few visually-impaired actresses on the circuit having been registered blind at the age of 13.
Not that she let this stop her from having a successful stage career – and even establishing herself as an international aerial circus performer.
In this show she is totally convincing as the nervous, timid wife who is gripped with shock and fear at the hands of the unscrupulous conmen who strike after creating a ruse to get her husband out of the house.
Unbeknown to Susy, they are hunting a missing doll which inadvertently came into the hands of her husband, played by Coronation Street star Oliver Mellor, but is far more than just a children’s toy.
Jack Ellis, best known as Jim Fenner in TV’s Bad Girls, plays the rugged ex-con who attempts to win the confidence of the panicked Susy in a bid to retrieve the doll.
His partner in crime is Burntwood lad and Saddlers superfan Graeme Brookes who acts out the role of DS Croker as part of the gang’s subterfuge. Brookes is entertaining as the seemingly hapless crook but reveals sinister hints of a violent streak as he becomes increasingly frustrated at their lack of success.
Particularly terrifying is the psychopathic gang leader Roat, played superbly by Tim Treloar, who injects some chilling terror into this gripping tale.
The first half can be a little frustrating as the scene is set but leaving so many questions hanging in the air. But the second half sees the tension and the action ramped right up to get the audience on the very edge of their seats.
Susy has the whole theatre in her corner as she finds the fortitude to try and tackle the gang, supported by her schoolgirl neighbour Gloria – played confidently and convincingly by Shannon Rewcroft.
Wait until Dark is an incredible theatre experience but maybe not for the faint-hearted.
Runs at Lichfield Garrick until Saturday.
