'Dark' Performances Beautiful And Believable
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from December 1971.
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The. Cayman Drama Society overcame a contrived and at times obscure script, Frederick Knott's "Wait Until Dark", and gave a believeable and at times, beautiful performance.
Val Morgan, as Susy Henderson was eminently believeable as a blind woman caught in a sinister plot to retrieve a heroin-filled doll. Mrs. Morgan was onstage during the entire performance, with the exception of the first scene, and swept the action and dialog through to the production's climactic end, played in total darkness. John Morgan's quiet, pathological Mr. Roat, was just short of perfection and his quick changes into other characters
laudible. As a tribute to John Maples' fine casting, Croker, played by John Furze actually looked the part of the small time hood, though he came through a bit too "nice" at times. Andrew Jackson seemed to develope his role of Mike Trenton as he went. along and had him down pat by Act 111.
Highest praise goes to Hazel MacKenzie as the adolescent Gloria, who captured that difficult, not-quite-adult, uncertain age completely. Mike Austin's Sam Henderson was sufficiently low-keyed to Val Morgan's Susy. and each complemented the other's performance. The set was a masterpiece and the professional handling of the lighting was remarkable.
The audience actually found itself transported to a basement flat in London. A critique of the audience may be unprecedented, but this reviewer feels that perhaps it would not be out of order. It has been said that one laughs at things not understood and this may certainly have been the case in this instance. However, to the viewers who came to be lost in a stage play, the distractions from the crowd were extremely annoying at times. The professional way in which the players handled these distractions is noteworthy.
