THEATER / Mark Chalon Smith : Macabre Humor Accents Flavor of the Suspenseful ‘Nightwatch’

Amid all the baroque suspense in Lucille Fletcher’s “Nightwatch” are touches of macabre humor--as when a character is driven to apoplexy by a disembodied dummy’s head. Turns out that it reminds her of someone who had been killed in a strange accident years before.

Don’t misunderstand, though: This is not a spoof of thrillers. “Nightwatch” is a tightly wound, rather inventive example of the many things a mystery play can be. “Nightwatch” may not be on a par with “Deathtrap,” and yes, it borrows from Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”, but still, it’s pretty good.

And it all comes together nicely at the Newport Theatre Arts Center, where director Scott Zuckman lets the mystery simmer until the big curve-ball ending, all the while accenting the flavor with the dabs of comedy that Fletcher provides.

The plot seems simple enough--at least at the outset. The unbelievably nervous Elaine (Katee Snead) thinks that she witnesses something terrible from a window in her upscale Manhattan apartment. She swears--to her husband, her nurse, the police--that she saw a dead man in the abandoned tenement across the way.

Her patronizing husband (Mitchell Nunn) doesn’t believe her, but he goes along, as does the nurse (Dani Ballew). And as Elaine spins further out of control (she later claims to have seen a woman’s body in the same tenement), Fletcher tosses out details that appear to implicate the husband and the nurse--who just happens to be his mistress.

The wealthy Elaine, it turns out, may be something of a basket case. Besides whatever is going on out that window, there are all those memories of that accident, which caused the death of her daddy and his young mistress.

Just maybe the husband and nurse are orchestrating everything to push Elaine over the edge. Once they get her in a sanitarium in Switzerland, the money and everything else will be theirs.

Well, appearances, in this case, are deceiving.

As for the acting, at first it seems that Snead is really overdoing it with all the screamy mannerisms. But hang in there: Her portrayal grows on you and makes perfect sense by play’s end. Snead comes across, at least in part, like someone trying to act like they are acting, which is the right approach here. No more can be said without sinking the plot.

Nunn is just sinister enough to suggest that he might be victimizing his wife, and there is something questionable about Ballew, too, that leads you to believe that she well could be his accomplice.

In minor roles, Dimitri Christy is hilarious as the meddlesome, gay next-door neighbor, and Karen Jackman swipes some of the scenes with her harrumphing portrait of Helga the eavesdropping maid. Bill Cole’s set of a stylish flat is detailed and professional, and Jane Hobson’s lighting gives an eerie cast to the more suspenseful moments.

‘NIGHTWATCH’

A Newport Theatre Arts Center production of Lucille Fletcher’s play. Directed by Scott Zuckman. With Katee Snead, Mitchell Nunn, Karen Jackman, Greg Izay, Dimitri Christy, Dani Ballew, Gordon Marhoefer, Sondra Hunter and Malcolm Silver. Set by Bill Cole. Lighting by Jane Hobson. Costumes by Joyce MacKay. Plays Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. through Dec. 18 at 2501 Cliff Drive, Newport Beach. Tickets: $10. (714) 631-0288.