On a rainy night in London, two Oxford undergraduates, Wyndham Brandon and Charles Granillo, commit a murder. Not out of passion, or hatred, or fear, but simply to prove that they are clever enough to get away with it. Because without a motive that connects them to the crime, how will they ever be caught? Read more …
But murder alone is not enough for the urbane Brandon, who convinces his highly strung partner to join him in an elaborate and gruesome challenge. The body of their victim is placed in a large chest in the centre of the drawing room. The same drawing room in which, later that evening, the victim`s family and friends will gather for a previously arranged dinner party. As the guests arrive, the two students have to test their ingenuity--and their nerve - to the limit. But will any of the newcomers become aware of the terrible game that is being played and discover the dark secret in the centre of the room? Is there just one visitor with a nose for murder?
Inspired by the infamous Leopold and Loeb case, this taut psychological thriller by the author of Gaslight is once of the most celebrated crime dramas of the last century. Premiered in 1929 and memorably filmed with James Stewart in 1948, this chilling depiction of an apparently motiveless murder is a masterclass in suspense, stretching the audience`s nerves--like a rope--to breaking point...
Is it comedy? Is it meant to thrill or chill? It, unfortunately, falls somewhere in-between and suffers from an identity crisis.
There is some mileage, however, in the will-they-won’t-they plot, which still keeps us guessing, and the sense of a play engaging, however clunkily, in some bigger than average ideas.
The pleasure is in rediscovering a genre play with more substance than you might expect.
Patrick Hamilton’s fascinating 1929 thriller Rope is given a production so stiffly confined in its own period that it loses much of its resonance.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Pitlochry from Friday June 1, 2012, until Friday October 12, 2012. Plays in repertoire. Check website for specific times.. More info: www.pitlochry.org.uk