The Sidekick Players Club opens its 19th season next week with the awardwinning thriller Wait Until Dark.
Written by Frederick Knott and directed for Sidekick by Carroll Lefebvre, the play will begin a three-week run at the Tsawwassen Arts Centre Oct. 8. After a flight back home, Sam Hendrix (Ted Schellenberg) returns with a doll he innocently acquired along the way. As it turns out, the doll is actually stuffed with heroin, and a group of criminals led by the ruthless Roat (Jeff Pannell) has followed Hendrix back to his place to retrieve it.
When Hendrix leaves for business, the crooks make their move - and find his blind wife, Susy (Lisa Gach), alone in the apartment. Soon, a life-threatening game begins between Susy and the thugs.
Rounding out the cast are Todd-Elliot Gates (Carlino), Mark East (Mike), Lucy
Greene (Gloria), Shylo Smith and George Windsor (patrolmen).
The stage play was adapted for the screen in the 1960s starring Audrey
Hepburn, who was an Oscar nominee for the role, Alan Arkin and Richard Crenna.
"The stage play is more suspenseful than the movie," says Lefebvre. "We find ourselves jumping and flinching at times during rehearsals."
Some scenes in the play are performed in total darkness, which poses many problems.
"We have to be careful that actors aren't hurt while performing," says Lefebvre. "It's been very challenging choreographing some scenes so that we don't compromise the actors' safety while still terrifying the audience."
Lefebvre is assisted by Margaret Currivan, Maureen Dorotich and Trish Mardon.
Wait Until Dark runs from Oct. 8 to 24 with performances at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday only. There is one matinee, Sunday, Oct. 18, at 2 p.m. Tickets sell out quickly, so call 604-288-2415 to reserve seats.
