Wait Until Dark
by Frederick Knott
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Book Summary Information
Author: Frederick KnottEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-01
ISBN: 0822212161
Number of pages: 89
Publisher: Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
Book Reviews of Wait Until Dark
Book Review: A Classic Theatrical Thriller
Summary: 5 Stars
Although he had a degree in law and a distinguished military career, Frederick Knott (1916-2002) is best recalled as the author of two very famous plays: 1952's DIAL M FOR MURDER and 1966's WAIT UNTIL DARK. Both enjoyed extremely successful runs in London and New York; both received memorable film adaptations; and both remain popular on the professional and amateur stage to this day. The plays are similar in structure: in each a lone woman is the victim of a complex criminal plot.
In the case of WAIT UNTIL DARK, the action centers on Susy Hendrix, a blind woman who lives with her photographer-husband Sam in a basement apartment in New York. While traveling from Canada to New York, Sam was approached by a woman who asked him to deliver a doll to a child in a hospital--but upon his return Sam mislays the doll. It seems a matter of small consequence, but unknown to Sam and Suzy the doll contains heroin, and three criminals set out to recover it.
The recovery process is simple: they will lure Sam away for the day and play out a con game designed to find the doll and turn it over to them. No fuss, no muss, and no one gets hurt. The con game seems successful--but Susy comes to suspect two of the men are actually police officers and that the doll may implicate her husband in a recent murder. She finds the doll, but when she refuses to turn it over she precipitates one of the most hair-raising sequences in modern theatrical history.
WAIT UNTIL DARK is particularly famous because the last fifteen minutes or so are played in absolute darkness broken only the flare of matches and the occasional flash of light. But plays are written to be seen, not read, and the effect on the page is therefore somewhat muted; in actual performance, however, audiences gasp and scream as Susy plays out a risky manouver in an effort to elude her tormentors. It is pure theatre and truly memorable stuff. Recommended.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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