Something hard to chide

Tom Titus

If asked to pick between watching a brilliant play with mediocre

actors or a mediocre play brilliantly performed, chances are you’d

opt for the latter.

“Something to Hide,” the latest production at the Newport Theater

Arts Center, certainly doesn’t rank among the stellar examples of

English literature, but with the cast director Terri Miller Schmidt

has assembled, it’s a first-rate suspense thriller. Plus, it has the

advantage of not having been performed incessantly like others in the

genre (think “The Mousetrap” or “Ten Little Indians,” even

“Deathtrap”), thus audiences most likely will be viewing the play for

the first time.

This in itself is somewhat on the head-scratching side, since

Leslie Sands wrote the play back in 1959, and it’s been tucked in the

back drawer of a certain play-leasing service ever since. Schmidt

literally had the script pulled out of a cubbyhole and the dust blown

off it during her recent quest for a “different” mystery play.

As performed on the arts center stage, in its original late-’50s

period, “Something to Hide” is intriguing primarily because it’s

unfamiliar. A roguish author of romance novels (Ken La Salle) has

married an older woman (Christi Sweeney), who finances his venture

while secretly wooing a seductive younger woman (Stephanie Schulz) at

his woodsy retreat. A fortuitous accident then turns into a potential

murder before the last playgoer is barely seated.

From that point, the stage belongs to the distraught Sweeney,

terror-stricken at the thought of her culpability and turning in a

high-gloss portrayal that, itself, is worth the price of admission.

It’s a tremendously demanding assignment, requiring dizzying

emotional swings, and Sweeney grabs it by the throat in one of the

finest performances local community theater has witnessed in many

moons.

Balancing her inner hysteria, which she strives valiantly to keep

beneath the surface, is the cunning, folksy demeanor of the local

police inspector, superbly rendered by Robert Kokol. Kokol’s

character is a familiar one -- think Columbo on the other side of the

pond -- but this veteran actor has the disarming craftiness down to a

science, particularly during a sequence in which his mind supposedly

is primarily occupied with a recalcitrant pipe.

As the scheming, duplicitous writer, La Salle projects an almost

melodramatic charm. His meticulous efforts to cover his tracks (not

all of which are successful) contribute to a provocative character

playgoers will love to hate. La Salle’s shifty eyes, under his

well-oiled ‘50s hairstyle, signal a man with his back to the wall,

yet determined to prevail.

Character roles -- those of the local gentry who may or may not be

involved in the chicanery -- are a staple of nearly every English

whodunit. In “Something to Hide,” there are two such types, a

meddlesome old lady, beautifully overdone by Anne Rudd, and the local

service station mechanic, offered with excited avarice by Robert P.

Purcell.

Schulz, who is being understudied by Michelle Calhoun-Fitts,

deliciously plays La Salle’s fetching mistress, who makes a lasting

impression in a brief amount of stage time. Claire Averill is a tart

treat as the obligatory maid.

The setting, a rustic cabin described as a converted tollhouse, is

nicely designed by Eckmann Stage and Technical with Schmidt supplying

the well-chosen appurtenances. Ron Wyand has come up with a haunting

musical background to link the play’s five scenes, while Mitch

Atkins’ lighting also is quite effective.

“Something to Hide” is quite more enjoyable than it probably

should be, principally because of its sterling cast, taut direction

-- and the fact that it’s most likely never been seen before. These

elements combine for a most entertaining evening.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.