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Imagine you committed the perfect crime.
It could be anything – maybe you stole a painting, sold a replica Fabergé egg as the genuine article, or killed your greatest enemy – but regardless, no-one caught you.
Would there be a part of you – so pleased with yourself for pulling it off – that wanted to flaunt your success and rub everyone’s noses in it…even if that raised the risk of being rumbled?
That’s the concept at the heart of Patrick Hamilton’s “Rope”, brought to the screen by Alfred Hitchcock in 1948 and to The Wilde Theatre by director Gemma Roch on the 23rd – 26th June 2021.
The play opens in Mayfair, 1929 with Brandon (Alex Daykin) and Granillo (Patrick Hannawin) closing the lid on a large box – into which they’ve just stuffed the freshly-murdered corpse of their classmate Ronald.
But while this might prime the audience for an evening-long police procedural, it quickly becomes apparent that Brandon – possibly possessed by the ghost of Oscar Wilde – has something far more whimsical in mind for the night ahead.
A dinner party.
For a variety of acquaintances that includes Ronald’s father.
With the food served atop the chest containing Ronald’s corpse.
And with that, the play becomes a kind of hellish inverse of the “drawing room plays” popularised by Noel Coward and the aforementioned Mr Wilde – albeit one that delves far more deeply into the psychological reality of life in the 20s, halfway between The War To End All Wars and The War It Didn’t Actually End.
For while Brandon’s act of murder (committed with Granillo’s nervy assistance) at first seems to be uncompromisingly cruel, the audience’s perceptions of these two men are challenged by the arrival of their guests, who don’t paint a particularly winning picture of society life in the roaring 20s.
Raglan (Luke Burton) and Leila (Gemma Burgess) both appear vacuous and empty. The audience’s views towards them are articulated in poet Rupert Cadell (Ian Crump)’s witticisms – except that he’s so rudely scathing that he hardly comes off any better. Sir Johnstone Kently (Gordon Vince) – the victim’s father – and his sister Mrs Debenham (Heather MacEachern), meanwhile, appear to be sleepwalking through life. Joel Embury’s butler Sabot is perhaps the only immediately sympathetic character.
Set against such an backdrop of spiritually empty figures, Brandon’s destructive energy paradoxically generates the most life in the context of the story. Perhaps the most horrifying moment in the play is not the murder itself, but the fact that the rationale for it veers so close to making a certain twisted kind of sense – in a country where so very recently young men were taught and encouraged to kill others no guiltier of a crime than they, where do you draw the moral line?
But as Brandon’s confidence grows, and his guests start to wonder what’s in the ominously large box, does he risk giving the game away…?
A play set in a single room must remain captivating throughout its run-time – and it’s a credit to the cast and crew that “Rope” never sags.
There are strong and commanding performances from the three leads (Daykin, Hannawin and Crump), but all of the actors and actresses really inhabit their characters, bringing depth and dimension to what at first appear to be light pastiches of the era and holding the audience’s attention by gradually revealing more to their roles than we might first have suspected was there. Particular credit goes to Heather MacEachern for bringing a character with few lines to life through brilliant physical acting; Luke Burton for his winning Bertie Wooster-esque Raglan, and Gemma Burgess as Leila – I’ve seen all three, and Daykin, in wildly different roles across the last few years, and it’s great to see them demonstrating the strength and breadth of their range.
The stage and set design are key to the story too. It’s often a very quiet production, but the silent moments only serve to bring the focus back to the corpse-filled box that occupies stage centre. Similarly, sound and lighting are used sparingly, as if they might break the spell set by the aftermath of the crime. I was often reminded of the way people act when they’re in the room where someone’s sleeping. Perhaps most powerful of all, for all its simplicity, is a scene where Sir Johnstone Kently (Gordon Vince) takes a phonecall from his wife, who’s worried about their son’s disappearance. Played against the subtle sound of thunder, Vince’s quiet and unobtrusive performance really captures the vulnerability of a parent adrift against life’s raging storm.
I urge everyone keen to return to theatres to see this performance, which marks the 50th show produced by The Studio Theatre Company at South Hill Park and the culmination of a casting and rehearsal process that stretches back to January 2020. Not only does it represent a triumph of will and determination in the face of all the challenges Covid-19 has brought to the theatre, it stands testament to the consistently high quality of the 50 productions that Company Manager Luke Burton has delivered over the years.
Here’s to another 50 more!
“Rope” runs from the 23rd – 26th June, with socially-distanced seating and Covid-19 safety measures in place. Tickets can be booked at https://uk.patronbase.com/_SouthHillPark/Productions/Q277/Performances
