[For the remainder of the year, my San Jose and Peninsula theater reviews will be posted on Talkin’ Broadway with only introductions to those reviews on this site]

Please continue to https://talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/sanjose/sj262.html for full review.

The 1967 film Wait Until Dark was exceedingly successful at the box office and with critics, and its climax ranks #10 in Bravo’s 100 Scariest Movie Moments – of all time.  Yet, many theatergoers might be unaware that the story was originally a successful stage play.

Terror percolates when unknown and unseen.  The heroine, Susan, lives in a Greenwich Village apartment with her husband Sam who is away on a business trip.  Though recently married to the man who is the only person she can depend on, Susan is led to believe that he is already having an affair and that he feels he made a bad decision in marrying her.

When confronted with suspicion and then fear, Susan is particularly imperiled.  She cannot see.  While her physical injuries from an auto accident 18 months before have healed, Susan has been left permanently blinded.  Her limitations mean tighter boundaries around what she is able to experience; a greater intensity of relying on other senses; and an intimate familiarity with her abode, where she spends virtually all of her time.

This suspense thriller is a complex con game in which three professional thieves scheme to extract something valuable from Susan.  That asset is an old-fashioned doll that happens to be stuffed with something of enormous value that Sam became holder of through no intention of his own.

*****

Wait Until Dark runs through November 3, 2024 at Hillbarn Theatre, 1285 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City, CA.  For tickets and information, please visit https://www.hillbarntheatre.org/ .