Local director Alan Penty has adapted British playwright Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 play Rope by mainly staying true to its structure, and he does it well, with the production examining just how dark humanity can be. It’s what I like to call a “back-seat thriller”: the audience is never jump-out-of-their-seats frightened—instead, eeriness claws at us throughout the play. Whether a commentary on fascism or the unrelenting remorseless delusions of a psychopath, Penty drives the ideas home with power in Rope.
The delusional moral hierarchy of the play’s lead character Brandon Phillips (played by Jordan Bell) is a highlight. The calm arrogance of his character is communicated by a sly, all-knowing resting smile etched on his face that will stay with me for days. Ken Yvorchuk’s performance in the final minutes of this performance is great, and Jared Gowen’s anxiety feels real and tangible.
The cast give this play their all, as does Penty; the central issue with it was that adapting Hamilton’s three-act play into a two-act structure meant that the cast was starting behind the 8-ball. The characters’ timing also could have been better in terms of reacting, but the cast is early in their run here. They managed to deliver many a laugh despite the dreary nature of this play, reminding us that humour can be found in even the most awful of situations.
This play is a rewarding endeavour for the audience, with Penty’s artistic visions being visible from the first scene, where we are looking into a home from the outside. The short opening scene leads to a smooth set change, which is beautiful, as Langham’s sets so often are—they could rival any professional theatre I’ve seen.
At its heart, this play focuses on the dark, twisted corridors we are capable of walking down, and how social context influences what is considered acceptable behavior. The lengths we go to assert our power over one another can haunt us in the end; rest assured, this play will haunt me. Rope is quietly disturbing in its detail of the lack of remorse the characters feel. It makes for a night of good, solid local community theatre hindered only by the way the original was structured.
Rope
Various times, until Saturday, November 23
$20 student tickets, Langham Court Theatre
langhamtheatre.ca