How to go
What: “Night Watch”
Where: Dayton Theatre Guild, 430 Wayne Ave., Dayton
When: Jan. 8-24; Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 5 p.m. (with the exception of the Jan. 9 performance at 8 p.m.); Sundays at 3 p.m.
Cost: $20 for adults; $18 for seniors; $13 for students.
Tickets/more info: (937) 278-5993 or www.daytontheatreguild.org
Mystery and madness ignites Lucille Fletcher’s 1972 drama “Night Watch,” beginning performances Friday at the Dayton Theatre Guild.
Inside her New York townhouse, the wealthy and very troubled Elaine Wheeler, unsettled and fearful, suffers from insomnia and is on the verge of a mental breakdown as suspicious events arise. Elaine’s husband attempts to comfort her, but after he decides to leave her for a moment, she screams having seen the body of a dead man in a nearby window. Did Elaine actually see a body or was her mind playing tricks? The police ultimately find nothing except an empty chair. When Elaine sees a woman’s body shortly thereafter, her tortured, frantic state is finally called into question.
“I think ‘Night Watch’ works well as a suspense or mystery because you don’t really know what’s happening until the very end of the story,” said Debra Strauss, who portrays Elaine. “There are plot twists and turns we hope will keep the audience guessing and uncertain until the denouement. There are moments of misdirection and sleights of hand throughout the play. I love when I’m surprised by the ending of a story and this one surprised me.”
Recently seen in Beavercreek Community Theatre’s production of “California Suite,” Strauss is particularly excited to delve into Elaine’s emotional complexities, allowing her an opportunity to be totally vulnerable.
“Elaine is complicated, emotionally fragile and certainly unstable,” Strauss said. “I want the audience to understand her motivations and how her past weighs on her present circumstance. I’d love for people to leave the theater discussing the story and posing their own theories of what happened and why.”
“One of the main elements of a successful suspense drama is the fact that the protagonist is being acted upon by forces he or she has no control over,” added director Saul Caplan, citing “Wait Until Dark,” “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “North by Northwest,” and “Gaslight” as classic examples. “I think most people find that losing their control and personal autonomy to be a very scary proposition. Nobody wants to feel like they’re being acted upon and are helpless to do anything about it. People are afraid of situations that could happen to them. Because of technical elements like close-ups and musical underscoring, suspense is sometimes easier to achieve in film, but I believe the intimate experience of live theater can make the story edge-of-the-seat worthy.”
The cast includes Lorin Dineen, Rick Flynn, Julie Hauwiller, Cynthia Karns, Dave Nickel, David Shough, Andre Tomlinson, and Richard Young.
Fletcher, who married composer Bernard Herrmann (“Psycho”), is best known for writing the 1943 radio play “Sorry, Wrong Number.” Her film adaptation of “Night Watch” was released in 1973 starring Elizabeth Taylor.
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