Photo by Chelsea Sutton
Veronika Decides to Die
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WAIT UNTIL DARK When measured beside the sensational, blood-spattered exploits of today’s infamous offenders, Frank Knott’s 1966 crime fable about drugs and a home invasion seems terribly sedate. That, in a word, also sums up director David Colwell’s revival. In the basement apartment of Sam and Susy Hendrix (Bert Emmett, Liza de Weerd), Sam has agreed to a stranger’s request that he transport a doll for a sickly child. Unfortunately, the doll contains heroin, and he has lost it, which makes some hoodlums very unhappy. When Sam is forced to leave the city, Susy, who is blind, is thrown into a high-stakes game of survival when the smugglers come calling for their merchandise. Most of the deceptively simple plot is laid out in the opening minutes of the play, and as presented here, they are frustratingly blurry. This play rises and falls on the methodical ratcheting up of tension and suspense, both of which are but faint glimmers under Colwell’s bland direction. Even the finale, which transpires in semi-darkness and should erupt with energy, implodes. There also are problems with cast: Leo Weltman and Chris Winfield, who portray the gangsters, project all the feral menace of a department-store Santa. Weltman comes across as an engaging buffoon much of the time — which might have provided some comic relief were there any danger on stage to be relieved from. Robert Gallo, as Harry Roat the ringleader, fares slightly better. As the blind girl, Weerd turns in a perfectly credible performance. The Group Repertory/Lonny Chapman Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., N. Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun. 2 p.m.; thru May 8. (818) 700-4878,
thegrouprep.com. (Lovell Estell III)
