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| Nichole Locket and Gabriel McClellend (foreground) and Ziggy Devlan and Jenifer Rifenbery (background) star in “Night Watch” at Tacoma Little Theatre. (COURTESY OF TACOMA LITTLE THEATRE) |
Review: “Night Watch”
Alec Clayton
The News Tribune, Nov. 10, 2012
The final three performances of Lucille Fletcher’s
“Night Watch” at Tacoma Little Theatre are tonight, Saturday and Sunday. This
taut and suspenseful play is an edge-of-the-seat fright in the Alfred Hitchcock
style.
The play is set in an upscale Manhattan apartment that
faces an abandoned building that can be seen through the window. Elaine (Nichole
Locket) is a troubled woman haunted by memories of a not-too-distant tragic
past and bedeviled by insomnia. Unable to sleep, she paces the floor and smokes
cigarettes in the early morning hours when she catches a brief and horrifying
glimpse of a murdered man’s body sitting by a window in the abandoned building.
Her husband John (Gabriel McClellend) tries to comfort her but instead upsets
her because he does not believe see really saw the body. Her best friend,
Blanche (Jenifer Rifenbery) does not believe her either, and neither do the
police who investigate the reported murder at Elaine’s insistence. The only person
who seems to believe her, but with reservations, is the eccentric neighbor,
Appleby (Joseph Grant), who has a way of sticking his nose in other people’s
business. Appleby thinks maybe it was a fake murder staged to scare Elaine and
run her out of the apartment.
Then she sees another body, this time a woman. And
then images from her past start mysteriously appearing. Is she losing her mind
and hallucinating these things? Is someone purposely trying to drive her crazy
or make her think she’s crazy? Or did she truly see what she claims to have
seen and if so, why won’t anyone believe her? These questions multiply and
build to a suspenseful crescendo and a satisfying surprise twist at the end.
There are secondary characters that have little to do
with the story other than to add color, such as a policeman (Charles Reccardo)
who is a quiet-spoken art lover. He is played well and understated by Reccardo,
but his small role does nothing to advance the plot; the roles of the policemen
could have been rolled into one. The scruffy Lieutenant Walker (John Pfaffe)
nails a stereotypical but entertaining cop who has had it with hysterical calls
from women like Elaine.
Also unnecessary is the German maid, Helga (Ziggy
Devlan), who is equally stereotypical but adds a little comic relief despite
some stiff acting and a terrible wig.
I have mixed feelings about McClellend’s portrayal of
the husband. His acting is fine, but the character is one-dimensional; and when
he gets mad and shouts at Elaine, which happens a lot, his anger doesn’t seem
real.
Locket plays the nervous and disturbed Elaine nicely.
With her many twitches and quirks and convincing portrayal of a terrified
woman, she makes the audience feel for her and root for her. You want her to
not be as crazy as she progressively seems as the plot progresses.
Rifenbery plays the very self-contained and supposedly
compassionate Blanche with restraint and dignity.
Grant is likeable and highly entertaining as Appleby.
His flamboyancy is funny without being offensive.
Set designer Burton Yuen’s 1970s apartment is spot-on,
with a checkerboard floor rendered in odd perspective and a back wall made of a
scrim broken into squares in imitation of a Mondrian painting, modern art on
the walls, including a nice copy of a Modigliani line drawing, and a little
Giacometti style statuette on a table and a Calder mobile hanging from the
ceiling. The wall behind the scrim is lighted with a brilliant succession of
colors (resident lighting designer Niclas R. Olson).
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. tonight (((Friday)))
and Saturday and 2:00 p.m. Sunday WHERE: Tacoma Little Theatre, 210 N “I” St.,
Tacoma
TICKETS: $15 - $25
INFORMATION: 253-272-2281, www.tacomalittletheatre.com.
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