YOU ARE HERE: Central Kentucky Home→Collections→Characters

REVIEW: 'Death By Darkness' is deliciously devious

July 10, 2008|CHARLIE COX

When slave guide Steven Bishop (John Nyrere Frazier) opens the play by bellowing from the back of the audience, it becomes clear "Death By Darkness" is going to be unlike anything you've every seen before at Pioneer Playhouse. Ingeniously crafted and superbly executed, the murder-mystery is among the best works I've seen, not just on the outdoor stage but on any stage, really.

"Some folks can't take the dark. The dark makes everyone - makes them naked ... before God," says Bishop to the audience, which serves as an implied tour group he's guiding through Mammoth Cave in 1842.

Boy, does he have that right.

After the play's lively and innovative introduction, we're placed in the middle of one of Bishop's tours as the caving party enters the Star Chamber of the Western Kentucky cave system. Each of the spelunking curiosity-seekers on the trip - budding reporter Jack Andrews (Luke Baldridge), farmer Squire Calloway (Mike McRee), preacher Horace Mallory (Robert G. Hess), and bickering Brit couple Catherine and John Huffman (Patricia Hammond and Nick Allen) - slowly finds their many layers unraveling when confronted with the darkness of the cave. Their unhinging is furthered by the appearance of a young tuberculosis patient named Ophelia (Maggie Robbins) and Dr. Croghan (Jeff Besselman), her physician and owner of the cave - not to mention a mysterious death.

Or two.

While the plot may seem relatively simple, it proves to be anything but. Part of the allure of the award-winning script by Danville's own Elizabeth Orndorff is how the author handles structure. Early in the play, the characters are developed in such a rich fashion, the story appears to be somewhat of a slow-burn, which abruptly changes pace in act two to a dangerous boil when the murder-mystery element is set in motion.

Juxtaposition of characters

Before delving into the deliciously-conceived whodunit, Orndorff weaves a series of intriguing themes throughout the early scenes where characters slowly begin to bare their souls. Something I enjoyed most was Ordorff's shrewd satire of perceived spirituality in the juxtaposition of the slave guide's beliefs and those of the preacher-character. Mallory's religious assertions prove to be entirely made of hot air, whereas the insights of Bishop, a character who is at first looked down upon only to later be viewed as the play's most powerful player, are more intelligent and reasonable. With her deft hand, Orndorff also manages moments of pure hilarity in the form of comedy as black as the darkness surrounding the characters.

With the noted script, the cast and production values also are uniformly excellent. Frazier, who first played the role of Bishop at the 2007 International Mystery Writers Festival, where "Darkness" won Best Play and he won Best Actor, gracefully balances the duality of Bishop. While other characters are arguing, Frazier plays Bishop with quiet restraint, looking up to God - or the Cave, for that matter - for guidance. When needed, Frazier also switches gears and takes charge of many a scene.

Following Frazier's lead, not one among the cast proves unremarkable, be it Hess' bombastic descent into drunkenness, Robbins' heartbreaking spewing of random observations that might not actually be so random, or Hammond's subtle power. They all more than deliver on the promise of Ordorff's script.

The actors have ample support in an amazing set that conveys the needed claustrophobia of the story and the cave, as well as colorful, time-appropriate costumes. This is quite simply a top-notch production.

With all elements adding up to a truly memorable night at the playhouse, "Death By Darkness" is one cave I highly recommend you wander into. You never know what you might find.

|

|

|