Wait Until Dark

Roles

The show is set in 1944, actors should be able to reflect the era.

• Susan (lead): blinded in an automobile accident a year and a half ago, a vivacious and capable woman, is attempting to rebuild her life with her husband, Sam, who she met in the hospital where she was recovering; she is at her most vulnerable though, a feeling she doesn’t like, as she tries to prove to Sam and to herself that she can be successful; visually impaired actors are encouraged to audition.
• Mike (lead): lieutenant in the Marines who knew Sam while they were attached to the same unit; in fact, Sam saved his life and he stopped by to see him while in New York on leave; at least, that’s who the audience believes he is until they discover at the end of Act I (in this new adaptation of the play) that he is part of the “con.”
• Roat (lead): a true psychopath with a love of the “con,” Roat is a master of disguise, no conscience whatsoever, and more athletic than he appears; he impersonates “Harry Roat, Sr.” (an out-of-control angry man in his ‘70s) and his son Harry Roat, Jr. (a henpecked man in his ‘40s) as part of this current vicious con game.
• Sam (supporting): a tough ex-Marine, he still suffers from PTSD, and he met his new wife when they were both hospitalized; she found him when he was struggling to find his way back from the war; he found her when she was trying to pretend she could cope without any help in her new blindness; a photographer, he wants Susan to be as independent as possible, and he sometimes sees her with the coldness of the camera lens, with a seeming dispassionate perfectionism.
• Carlino (supporting): a bearish man who has been recently released after three years in prison; a bit dim, he’s still wary of what he can’t control; the one thing he knows well is his role in the “con:” Sgt. Carlino, the overworked cop who’s on the hunt for the criminal.
• Gloria (supporting): a young girl struggling in a difficult NYC childhood, Gloria has no one in her life; she’s bright and wants to be helpful, has a crush on Sam, and resents Susan, even though she secretly admires her for her spunk; and to top it all off, she just got glasses! she’s pretty miserable and takes it out on whomever she can (except Sam).

About Wait Until Dark

Wait Until Dark was a huge success when it premiered on Broadway in 1966. And now Jeffrey Hatcher has adapted Frederick Knott’s 1966 original giving it a new setting … Greenwich Village, New York.

Susan Hendrix – a blind yet capable woman – is imperiled by a trio of men in her own apartment. The three crooks are desperate to find a drug-filled doll and plot to compel the owner to give away its whereabouts. They tell Susan a frightening story about her husband’s supposed infidelity. But she becomes suspicious.

And in a terrifying climax she makes use of the advantage that the blind have over the sighted. But first, she and her tormentors must Wait Until Dark to play out this classic thriller’s chilling conclusion.

WAIT UNTIL DARK, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, was
originally produced by the Geffen Playhouse,
Randall Arney, Artistic Director; Ken Novice, Managing Director
Behnaz Ataee, General Manager; Regina Miller, Chief Development Officer

WAIT UNTIL DARK HATCHER is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection. (www.dramatists.com)”

Reviews

“a vulnerable woman discovering unexpected resources that allow her to turn the tables on her assailants is still the main draw goose-pimply climax gripping finish” 

The Los Angeles Times

“satisfyingly tense, evergreen clever, with gratifying thematic undercurrents”

– The Hollywood Reporter