THEATER / T.H. McCULLOH : Backstage’s ‘Dark’: Breathless Return to Stage Suspense

They don’t write intriguing mysteries for the stage anymore. Terror and shock that were the theater’s stock in trade now find their home in films and television, and it’s a shame. There’s a thrill in actually witnessing flesh-and-blood skulduggery that can never really be conveyed on screen.

Take Fredrick Knott’s “Wait Until Dark” (at the Backstage Theatre in Costa Mesa through Oct. 30), an involved, fascinating piece of trickery about Susy Hendricks, a blind woman whose husband is out of town for the day, unwittingly having left her with a doll stuffed with a shipment of heroin. Susy, of course, is equally unaware of the doll’s hidden treasure--and that a stream of visitors to her darkened world are not what they seem, are not after what they say they are after.

But Susy is very bright, very capable of operating in a seeing word--and she knows where the fuse box is. So she can, at least temporarily, make others as handicapped as herself.

Al Valletta’s staging is effective in the Backstage’s small space. Susy’s Greenwich Village flat looks, in Taylor-May’D’s set design, as though it were imported from Bleecker Street. And Jeffrey Ault’s lighting design is especially effective, as important to the action as an additional character.

Valletta doesn’t let a moment’s intake of breath interrupt the suspense as he builds it carefully to proper heights. And as Susy he has cast Darcie Dodds, who not only makes the character’s blindness totally believable but who also knows how to balance Susy’s moments of fear and courage.

Kevin Bossemeyer is charming in the small role of Susy’s husband, oblivious of her danger. And young Kellie Nitkin is outstanding as the bratty neighbor kid who infuriates Susy and later is instrumental in her rescue. Wayne Mayberry and Keith McCarthy both are strong as thugs.

As Roat, the head thug, Warren Kevin Draper menaces well and is adept at the changes of voices necessary for his deceptions. He is, however, a prop klutz. At the performance reviewed, he knocked over a couple of props, glanced at them and both times left it to another actor to pick them up. That wasn’t too disastrous, but in the climactic scene, which must be tightly choreographed and immaculately performed, Draper could not wrap a chain around a doorknob to imprison Susy. He took many minutes trying before finally giving up and improvising: “They don’t make chains like they used to.” The laughing audience applauded, but a most important moment was lost.

* “Wait Until Dark,” the Backstage Theatre, 1599 Superior Ave., No. B-2, Costa Mesa. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Oct. 30. $15. (714) 646-5887. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes. Darcie Dodds: Susy

Kellie Nitkin: Gloria

Wayne Mayberry: Carlino

Keith McCarthy: Mike

Warren Kevin Draper: Roat

Kevin Bossemeyer: Sam

A Backstage Theatre production of the mystery by Fredrick Knott, directed by Al Valletta. Scenic design: Taylor-May’D. Lighting design: Jeffrey Ault.