Strong leads, special effects highlight thriller in Salem

The director and cast succeed in pulling off a difficult drama.

By Tracey D’ASTOLFO

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

SALEM — Privacy and security are easily breached in this Internet era, but it wasn’t always that way.

In the ’50s, for example, a man could expect that his personal life was private. Having a stranger learn every detail of your life was a horror unimaginable.

It’s also the premise of “Strangers on a Train,” the psychological thriller that opened Friday at Salem Community Theatre.

The play is based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith. Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense who was always ahead of his time, turned it into a movie in 1951.

The play opens on a sparse note. Two men begin chatting in the dining car of a passenger train. Lights intermittently flicker past, as they would on a moving train, a neat special effect.

Two strangers — Guy Haines, an ambitious architect, and Charles Bruno, a wealthy alcoholic socialite — strike up an odd conversation as they ride. Bruno proposes the perfect murder scenario: If they each murdered someone from the other’s life, the crimes would be virtually unsolvable because there would be no motive.

Haines assumes Bruno is joking. But then his unfaithful wife is murdered. From that point on Haines is sucked into the psychotic plans of Bruno, who now wants Haines to return the favor.

Craig Snay is the director and he also plays Haines. He convincingly conveys the mounting tension his character feels as Bruno insinuates himself into his life and becomes increasingly threatening.

SCT regular Dan Haueter is a commendable choice as the psychopathic Bruno — a man with obvious Oedipal issues. Anna Sturgeon is lovely as Haines’ supportive girlfriend and the perfect motivating factor for Bruno’s purposes. Kathy Fawcett plays Bruno’s adoring, if not somewhat oblivious, mother.

Rounding out the cast are Tim Gottschling and Dick Fawcett as Haines’ fellow architect friends Frank Myers and Robert Treacher, respectively. Mark Frost plays private detective Arthur Gerard whose snooping sets Bruno on edge.

This is a difficult play to execute, with its underlying themes of homosexuality and morality, but these subtleties aren’t lost thanks to Snay and the cast.

It’s also a noir-ish, dark piece, with precise dialog. The mounting feeling of being closed in resonated through the theater (even in spite of a fussing baby in the audience during the tense second act).

Special recognition should be included for the lighting, which is always a crucial element in any Hitchcock show.