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Oct. 12, 2012
A comedy that also frightens
I’ll Be Back Before Midnight is now at Metro Theatre.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
What possibly could happen next? This is the question that will be running through your mind from the minute the curtain rises on Metro Theatre Centre production’s of I’ll Be Back Before Midnight until the play’s final moment.
The synopsis is straightforward: “A couple rents an old farmhouse with the hope that the peace and quiet will help the wife recover from a nervous breakdown, but the old owner tells them tales of murder and ghosts....” The tales turn out to be more real than not in this fun, melodramatic thriller written by British-Canadian playwright Peter Colley, and the twists outnumber the turns. As Colley, who is based in Toronto and Los Angeles, notes in the production’s playbill, “The audience should walk a tightrope of hysteria – not knowing whether the next minute will contain a laugh or a scream.”
Director Don Glossop has assembled a cast that works well together, and which ably accomplishes the many transitions between humor and horror, always maintaining a level of energy and intent that keeps the audience engaged and on the edge of their seats, almost literally. Alice Howell plays the neurotic, high-strung wife who is struggling to keep it together, James Behenna is her sensitive-challenged, PhD candidate, kind of creepy husband, and Jewish community member Melanie Preston is her controlling, very creepy sister-in-law. Rounding out the intimate group is veteran actor Harry Seddon as the “old owner” of the farmhouse, who plays with seeming ease the role of the chatty, whiskey-drinking farmer, providing most of the play’s comedic moments.
Glossop is to be commended for the job he has done in staging a technically complicated play that features numerous visual and sound effects. The entire production team, which includes another Jewish community member, Heather Abrahamson, as assistant stage manager under Shay Cameron, does a great job timing all the cues and organizing the scene changes. The set by Heather Stewart immediately evokes a rustic hideaway that is equally perfect as a place of refuge and of danger.
I’ll Be Back Before Midnight is at Metro Theatre, 1370 SW Marine Dr., until Oct. 27, with performances Thursday to Saturday, 8 p.m., and Sunday matinées, at 2 p.m. Ignorance of how the story ultimately ends will allow for maximum enjoyment of the play, so resist any urge to go online and find out the plot’s details. However, do go online or grab a map and figure out the parking situation before you head to the show, as it is a bit confusing: owners of the Fraser Arms, just west of the theatre, allow theatre parking, but only at the end of their lot that is off Milton Street, i.e. furthest away from the buildings and the Value On liquor store.
For tickets and information about I’ll Be Back Before Midnight and the rest of Metro Theatre’s 2012/13 season, visit metrotheatre.com or call the box office at 604-266-7191.
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