THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 3, 1996 TAG: 9604020152
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater review
SOURCE: MONTAGUE GAMMON III
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
``Night Watch,'' now on stage at the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach, is one of the more cleverly plotted of those ever-popular plays that set out to mystify an audience and to keep them in suspense.
A wealthy young insomniac looks out of her townhouse window late one night and claims to see a body in the abandoned tenement overlooking her back yard.
The harried police find a chair in the vacant room, but no evidence that there had been a corpse in it.
Events suggest that Elaine Wheeler, who continues to maintain that the body was as real as the chair in which she saw it slumped, is the victim of an overactive imagination. Comments arise about severe emotional problems that had bedeviled her years before.
The climactic revelation is almost guaranteed to startle viewers, so deftly has playwright Lucille Fletcher manipulated the formulas and camouflaged the evidence.
One does wonder why the investigating officers were so incurious about the presence of the solitary, and singularly out of place, piece of furniture that lurked behind the closed doors of an otherwise empty building. Still, this script is relatively free of such inconsistencies.
Chelsie Ray Lindquist is quite convincing as Elaine. John Haberli is similarly believable in the role of her rather brusque, half-heartedly sympathetic husband, John. Lynn Cameron is entirely at home in the part of Blanche, the nurse and friend of Elaine who lodges with the couple and serves, one gathers, as Elaine's paid caretaker.
Betty Brigman gets a goodly share of chuckles with her portrayal of the incompetent, self-absorbed maid who is not incapable of noticing, or profiting from, what goes on behind her back. The scene stealing role of the flighty, effeminate neighbor is played by Bob Nelson.
Like the actors in the more prominent roles, Michael Osman is competent and convincing in his brief appearances as an uncommonly cultured patrolman. Frank McCaffery also is well cast as the homicide lieutenant.
Director Victoria Blake has put together a show in which the acting is smooth, the characters believable, and the plot finely constructed.
All that this self-styled suspense drama lacks is true suspense. Curiosity about who, what and why is not a satisfying substitute for the ever-increasing emotional tension that one expects in a thriller. On opening night, only once, when Elaine is alone as the drama nears its end, was there the feeling that some horror, some impending doom, was about to break.
All the show needs is toning the energy levels and tightening the timing. Attention to the pacing and the intensity of the characters' behavior could make ``Night Watch'' a gripping, rather than just an interesting, evening's entertainment. by CNB