The Secret To Suspense

‘Night Must Fall’ keeps audience guessing

The secret to a good thriller, says Harry Blundell, is not whodunnit, but how.

Blundell, director of theater at the Arts Center of the Ozarks, doesn’t mean “with a hammer in the ballroom.” He means that actors must take their audience on a journey. Sometimes the audience knows where they’re going before the actors do, and sometimes they find the way together.

“The strange fascination is the same on both sides of the coin,” he says.

In the specific case of “Night Must Fall,” Blundell says the trick has been “teaching people who live in the 21st century to regress in the rate we live our lives and how fast we speak and move. The suspense happens because we’re on the edge of our seats, waiting for the next thing. The challenge is to get them to slow down and appreciate what the moment means, because the moment is so important in suspense.”

The play, written by Emlyn Williams in 1935, became a popular 1937 film starring Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell. Blundell says while he’s seen the “great standard suspense thriller” a hundred times, “it’s a show I don’t believe has been done around here.”

As the story opens, Mrs. Bramson, a rather cantankerous old lady, is attended at her rural estate in Essex, England, by her niece, Olivia, and her servants, Mrs. Terrence, the cook, and a young maid, Dora.

Dora has been frequenting a less-than-savory establishment in town, Blundell continues the tale, and has gotten herself in a spot of trouble. She’s pregnant.

When Mrs. Bramson summons Dan, the father of the child, to her home, she expects to call him on the carpet and convince him to do the right thing. Instead, he charms her so thoroughly she invites him to move in and work as her personal assistant.

“The story is about how this young man insinuates himself into this household of women and how Olivia becomes strangely fascinated by him and the unspoken excitement he provides in life,” Blundell describes. “Of course, there is a murder in close proximity to the house.”

Whether Dan dunnit remains to be revealed.

“There’s a point in the script where the audience might wonder if I’m the bad person,” says Judy Scott, a veteran actress who is portraying Mrs. Bramson. “At least I hope they will.”

Scott says the play has been a wonderful challenge for her, since she’s most often appeared in comedies and musicals, most recently “Octette Bridge Club” at ACO several years ago.

“This is a character I’ve never played before,” she says, “so it’s a challenge. But the more I think about it, maybe Harry did typecast me! I’m just a grumpy old lady who wants my way with everything!”

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