THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411180110
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: BY MONTAGUE GAMMON III
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
The Little Theatre of Portsmouth certainly worked hard on its latest production, ``Catch Me If You Can.''
The efforts of the cast were evident in their energetic performances. Merely the waving of arms and hands in which each actor indulged must have burned thousands of calories every show, and the consistently high volume that most of them maintained surely required exceptional lung power.
The set was detailed and for the most part smoothly finished, and it is not an easy task to put up scenery in an auditorium shared with the activities of a high school. The places where the walls of this wealthy man's country hideaway seemed to be crumbling were only on the periphery of the stage. There they remained unnoticed unless one lost interest in the action and allowed one's gaze to wander.
At the outset it was obvious that the director had issued detailed and carefully thought out instructions to the cast members on when and where and how to move. Though some would say that actors should move as if their characters had some reason to do so other than the director's instructions, the audience was never bored in that first scene by actors standing still.
One also should give credit to the performer who covered, with a barely perceptible prompt, the forgetfulness of another. The presence of mind to keep a scene running when one actor has dried up is not easily developed.
The plot was one of those multi-twisted suspense tales with a double surprise ending, which depend for their success upon credulous viewers and protagonists who are less than quick-witted. Though one suspects some loss in the adaptation ``from the French version,'' the script has the potential to be a first-rate thriller.
Such suspense dramas and thrillers are notoriously difficult to pull off, and due recognition should be given to the Little Theatre just for attempting this piece.
Unfortunately, the production never managed to initiate nor to sustain the steady growth of tension that could give the audience a truly suspenseful experience. Everything happened at one pace and one level, rather than an alternating between valleys of relative calm and increasingly high peaks of dramatic intensity which could have built up, scene by scene, to a striking climax.
The plot concerned a man who has reported his wife missing on their honeymoon. A Catholic priest appears with a woman who claims to be the missing woman, but who the husband says is not his wife.
The woman tells her purported husband, when there are no witnesses, that she and the fake priest are planning to murder him for his insurance. Each time the husband attempts to expose them he only makes himself look unstable to the detective investigating the disappearance.
The script deserves praise for throwing up enough red herrings that one didn't immediately consider the obvious thought that if a wife is missing the husband is the first suspect. By the time this truth had been revealed, though in a more than moderately contrived fashion, it came as a genuine surprise. The priest and wife had been part of the police team.
Marti Craver, as the impostor wife, was relaxed, convincing and had some real spark and an appropriate touch of confident menace in her characterization. Other hard working members of the cast were John B. Mastrangelo, Tom Brugger, Jim DiMunno, Dick Greene, Francesca Carey and Adam Ivey. Mastrangelo also designed the set and lighting, and Gary Braner directed. MEMO: This review is based on the only performance of ``Catch Me If You Can,''
held Nov. 13.
by CNB