WAIT UNTIL DARK – REVIEW OF 2025 SHAW FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Wait Until Dark is a suspense thriller by Frederick Knott, adapted for the stage by Jeffrey Hatcher. It involves Susan (Sochi Fried), a young, blind woman who lives in a basement apartment in Greenwich Village, New York in 1945. She has a young neighbor called Gloria (Eponine Lee) who lives on the floor above her and her husband Sam (JJ Gerber). The play has three other characters: Mike (Kristopher Bowman), Carlino (Martin Happer) and Roat (Bruce Horak).

The idea of a suspense thriller is just that, suspense, surprise, shock and on-the-edge-of-your-seat anticipation of what might happen next. A revelation in a review of facts about the characters may lead the astute to figuring out the plot  and after that they may want to do to the reviewer what Macbeth did to Duncan. Let’s see how much I can say without revealing anything of substance.

The play takes place over Friday and Saturday afternoon. It is tightly plotted. The basement apartment has two large windows and messages are probably conveyed by opening and closing the blinds, but can we be sure? A dead body is discovered in a closet in the apartment and there is a safe whose contents and combination are unknown. Pretty suspicious, I would say. 

Sochi Fried as Susan, Kristopher Bowman as Mike and 

Martin Happer as Carlino in Wait Until Dark (Shaw Festival, 2025). 

Photo by Michael Cooper.

There are some questions about Susan’s husband and somebody (one, two or all three men) wants to get something from Susan. The deck is loaded and it will take about two hours and twenty minutes to unravel everything. In the meantime, there will be a few scary, shocking and gasping incidents. No facts divulged by me.

Sochi Fried as Susan is intelligent, astute and a potential victim of violence. There are shocking and breath-stopping events that I will tell you nothing about. The three actors do superb work in their roles but I refuse to tell you more than that.    

Bowman, Gerber, Happer and Horak give outstanding performances and i say this without my tongue in my cheek. Eponine Lee as Gloria runs up and down the stairs at great speed and gives a superb performance.

The set by Lorenzo Savoini shows a credible image of a 1940’s basement apartment and the lighting design by Louise Guinand is well done to represent the plot development involving the blind occupant.

The thriller is directed expertly by Sanjay Talwar with a sharp eye on timing and pacing,

For the rest, you will just have to see the play. 
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Wait Until Dark by Frederick Knott, adapted for the stage by Jeffrey Hatcher continues at the Festival Theatre until October 5, 2025, as part of the Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com.

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press, Toronto