Don't wait to see Calliope's meticulous `Wait Until Dark'.

Byline: Paul Kolas

COLUMN: THEATER REVIEW

BOYLSTON - The chances are likely that you'll be so knotted up by the tension generated by Walter Schumacher's meticulously directed production of Calliope Theatre's "Wait Until Dark" that you'll happily go along with the unfathomably complicated trappings of its central premise while you're chewing on your fingernails.

Thursday night's performance was a veritable fun house of terror, as Linda Oroszko's splendidly detailed performance as blind Susy Hendricks pits wits with Alec Beekmans' fabulously chilling take on the psychotic Harry Roat Jr.

There's an awful lot of bloated contrivance going on in "Wait Until Dark," but it allows the suspense to take on a sometimes comic tone, as when Roat assumes several disguises in his attempt to wrest a heroin-filled doll from somewhere in Susy's Manhattan apartment. How and why that doll got there requires a major stretch of logic, as does the ambiguously elaborate scheme Roat and his two accomplices, Mike Talman (Jeremy Woloski) and Sgt. Carlino (Matt Cory), devise to find the doll.

Susy's professional photographer husband, Sam (Vic Kruczynski), was given the doll by a woman named Lisa at the Montreal airport on one of his business trips. We never see Lisa, nor is it really made clear just what her criminal alliance with Roat, Talman and Carlino is all about, but we do know that Roat has murdered her and uses his various disguises to fool Susy and implicate Sam in the crime.

One may question, after the lights go up and frayed nerves settle down, why Roat and the boys go through all their fake identities and employ the use of Susy's Venetian blinds to signal each other from the apartment to the street. Why not just rough her up and find the doll by sheer brute force while Sam is out of town? Why doesn't Susy just grab her cane, hail a cab and book it while she can?

Well, folks, then we wouldn't have the pleasure of seeing Oroszko and Beekmans play their delicious cat-and-mouse game as the play hurtles toward its jump in the dark conclusion. The singular achievement of Oroszko's performance is how thoroughly she transits Susy from a seemingly helpless and dependent woman to a tenaciously resourceful and inventive survivor. Oroszko's body language effectively conveys Susy's instinctual hyperawareness, compensating for Susy's lack of sight by relying on her other senses to help her piece together the mounting deception around her.

By the time she puts into play her own ingenious countermeasures, with the help of Gloria (Jillian Schwartz), the young girl upstairs who has a lot to do with that doll, Oroszko has fully earned our rooting empathy. More than one audience member was heard to exclaim, "You go, girl!" during the climatic scenes.

Such a participatory response wouldn't occur without the presence of an actor capable of creating a truly threatening adversary. Beekmans is capable and then some. The moment his Roat walks through Susy's front door, and explains who he is to Talman and Carlino, we know he's bad news, really bad news. Sporting dark sunglasses, and uttering every word with smug, sinister calculation, Beekmans conjures up a tangible feeling of dread with a terrifyingly convincing portrait of evil incarnate.

Woloski's Talman and Cory's Carlino, small-time crooks that they may be, are light years away from Roat's hall of fame badness. Woloski is very good as the frustrated Talman, nearly gaining some sympathy when he finally tells Susy what's really going on. Cory offers a smooth, weaselly turn as Carlino.

Schwartz shows impressive poise and confidence as Gloria. Kruczynski provides a warm and thoughtful take on Sam. Schumacher's shrewedly conceived sound design - including the incessant hum of Susy's open refrigerator - works in tandem with Dave Ludt's expertly crafted set and lighting design to create the right atmosphere for Knott's convoluted thriller.

For blind patrons, audio description of the play will be provided at 8 p.m. Oct. 24 and 2 p.m. Oct. 25.

`Wait Until Dark'

* * *-1/2

By Frederick Knott, directed by Walter Schumacher. At Calliope Theatre, 150 Main St., Boylston. Performances at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturdays, and at 2 p.m. Sundays, through Oct. 25. Tickets: $15, $12 students and seniors. Call [phone] for reservations or visit www.calliopeproductions.org. With Linda Oroszko, Alec Beekmans, Jeremy Woloski, Matt Cory, Vic Kruczynski, Jillian Schwartz, Chris Harris and Doug Beller.

Key to the Stars

* * * * ... Hot Stuff

* * * ... Good Job

* * ... Not Bad

* ... Never Mind